


Ends of the Spectrum

by Coloured_Rainbow



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: College AU, F/M, Female Reader, Finally, GET SOME VIOLENCE UP IN HERE, Gangs, Innocent Fluff, No Smut, Panic Attacks, Reader Is Not Frisk, Tagging as I go, Well - Freeform, What Did You Expect, YAAY, also he wears chains, but we'll get into that soon, cus why the hell not, edgy as f uck, hottopic, if he wasn't a skeleton he'd totally wear eyeliner, its underfell, its y o u boi, ooooh backstory, or anyone else from undertale, probably, reader is over 21, s l o w-ass burn, sans pov, so be in the lookout for that, sorta but not really, violence may come in later, yaaay m o re backstory sorta
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 19:23:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9622052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coloured_Rainbow/pseuds/Coloured_Rainbow
Summary: You're a college student who had a panic attackHe's a member of a gang who brought you homeand stole your wallet





	1. Red

**Author's Note:**

> I felt that there was a severe lack of non-smut Underfell fics
> 
> So here I am

You sucked in a deep, raspy breath as you tried to regain your balance. The school year had just begun and it was already quickly unraveling. But even so, you decided to take every AP class available, every honours class, after-school math and tech clubs... and you hadn't even bought your own car yet.

So, as all this weight finally caught up to you, you could feel it pull you close to the floor, blacking out your vision in the form of a horrendous panic attack.

You just needed to get back to your dorm, then you'd be fine.

Yes, on top of everything you decided to take that student loan and buy a dorm. God knows why, but what's done is done. You tried not to think about it too much as to not add on any more anxiety. You were glad no one was there, it being 12 am on a Wednesday, to see you like this.

You decided that you'll never study out late again.

You stumbled to the side, holding onto the wall for support. Your legs shook and you gripped tightly onto your thick-ass, 700 page textbook that didn't help with the whole falling-onto-the-floor thing. 

As your breathing became more shallow and your eye sight closed off completely, your arms gave out, sending your book onto the old, blue, stained carpet.

You hiccuped and tears streamed down your face. You could feel your arms begin to lock up and you legs turn to jello. 

This was bad.

You walked forward, quickly trying to just get to your goddamn dorm, but with all the tears and whatever the hell else was happening in your eye sockets blocking your sight, you rammed right into someone, falling forward.

The last thing you saw was red.

And the last thing you heard was an deep, intelligent, "what the fuck," as you slammed your head hard on the floor by the persons feet.

☠️ ☠️ ☠️

You slowly opened your eyes and for a moment while you couldn't see, you thought you had died. But as you widely flung your arms and hissed in a breath, sitting up, your eyesight came back as a hot rag fell off of your face and into your lap.

You looked at it, confused, and glanced around to see that you were on your couch in your dorm.

Oh yeah, you had bumped into someone, huh? They must have brought you back.  
You strained your mind, trying to think, but couldn't place a face.

Maybe you'd see them around campus.

You stood up and looked at the clock: 

5:30 am.

Man, you'd felt like it was noon. Now you'd be super tired later today...

You walked over to the counter, yawning and stretching, ready to start the day off with a shit-ton of coffee. But to your disappointment, you were out.

You groaned to yourself, asking why anything couldn't go right for you as you reached for your wallet. You had about 35 bucks cash and a debit card, so you were sure you could scrounge up something for a coffee.

As you went to pull out your money, you thought back to the person that you bumped into. You wondered how they got inside and why they didn't just bring you to the school nurse instead of supposedly breaking in. And you hoped they didn't do anything weird while you were alseep.

You shivered at the thought, but soon that thought became a horrifying reality as you opened up your now empty wallet; devoid of cash, your card, and a little piece of paper that had your debit number on it.


	2. Edgy McEdgerson visits the Edgy Store™

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While all of the other stores were dimly lit and shut down with gates and covered in white paint and black plastic, this store was lined in graffitied, worn bricks and windows plastered with half naked women dressed in costumes and anime merchandise.
> 
> You stepped inside and were immediately bathed in stuffy, thick air, black lights, and Queen.
> 
> “Welcome to Hot Topic!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y a y. I actually got to writing the next chapter :3  
> I'm glad people are actually liking this!
> 
> Hopefully the plot will get better as time goes on. I'm kinda bullshitting it rn, so...

You could feel your heart drop into your gut as you stared down at the empty wallet.

They stole… your money.

Every penny you had saved for school and food and the dorms… your student loans… was on that card.

Why that was a good idea was beyond you, but you just couldn't think as of recently.

You finally snapped out of it enough to shakily run over to the desk by your bed and pull out your phone. You pushed Speedial 1, listening intently to the ringing.

“Hello?”

“Thank goodness,” you breathed. “Look, Chris, I need your help.”

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“I-I, well, I kinda passed out and then--well, I left my books in the library--ok, wait, well it all started when my teacher gave me all of this work right?”

“Woah, woah, woah… ok,” Chris soothed. “Just chill. How about you just come down here and tell me? It’s slow as hell, anyways.”

You twisted your face. “Uhm, like… down to your work?”

“Yeah!”

You groaned, rubbing your temple. “You know I hate it there.”

“C’mon! I’m _so_ bored down here, anyways. It’s not that far to walk and your class doesn’t start until like, what, 8?”

“Y-yeah, I mean-- 

“C’mon!" 

You hesitated, but then sighed. “Fine. I-I’ll walk down there. 

“Yeah boi! See ya soon.” 

“R-right…” You hung up, letting out a shaky breath. Maybe it was a bad idea to walk there… but you really didn’t know what else to do. Whenever anxiety hits you hard, you kind of draw a blank and make not-the-best decisions. 

So, despite what seemed like common sense, you threw your hair up in a bun, quickly draped your camo-green, light trench coat over yourself, and popped a piece of gum in your mouth on the way out.

☠️ ☠️ ☠️ 

It’s cold.

Very cold. 

You hug yourself tightly, your fingers digging into your coat for dear life. At least the autumn air was _sort_ of refreshing. But it was much darker out than when you usually left, it being only… you glanced down at your phone, temporarily sliding it out of your back pocket… 5:43 in the morning. 

Despite you shivering, you could feel your anxiety being taken away with the wind, and you actually felt a lot better. 

It was unusually quiet out; no cars passing by, no people littering the streets. Even the bums at the corners were off breaking somewhere. It was… really nice. You felt like you haven’t been able to just relax in a long time. 

__If it weren’t for the damn wind, you might’ve actually been at peace at that moment._ _

__Five blocks and three crosswalks later, you find yourself finally approaching the last place you thought to find yourself going. You couldn’t even believe they were open this early._ _

__You walked inside, now bathed in heat, and were just thankful to be alive. One more minute out in that cold and you probably would've been blown off your feet and thrown into a window or something._ _

__You looked around and were relieved to see that it was empty. There were maybe two or three people scattered here and there, but most of the shops were closed and people were back home in their warm, comfy, houses…_ _

__It seemed you were just incapable of making good decisions._ _

__Proving that fact, you shook the cold off and walked deeper into the hallways, past the rows and rows of varied shops and stands to one that stood out in particular._ _

__While all of the other stores were dimly lit and shut down with gates and covered in white paint and black plastic, this store was lined in graffitied, worn bricks and windows plastered with half naked women dressed in costumes and anime merchandise._ _

__You stepped inside and we're immediately bathed in stuffy, thick air, black lights, and Queen._ _

__“Welcome to Hot Topic!” Came a mocking, flamboyant male voice._ _

__“Hey Chris,” you breathed, keeping your arms close to your sides and taking in short, shallow breaths._ _

__“Come in, come in!” As he walked behind the counter, swirling between tables stocked with Pop Dolls, he ran his green acrylic nails across stands, making you wince at the sound. “God, you don't know how lonely it gets here, hon.”_ _

__“Uh, w-why do you open so early?”_ _

__Chris shrugged. “Got nothing better to do.” He smiled, waving you toward where he was standing before. “C’mon!” He grabbed your wrist and pulled you across the shop. “While you're here, I’m totally doing your hair and your nails and I can pick you out some shirts--which I can totally get you for a wickedly low price--and--”_ _

__“Wait, wait,” you dug your heels into the floor, stopping Chris in his tracks. “I-I had to… I wanted…”_ _

__“I know, I know,” Chris rolled his eyes. “But first lemme get you some stuff to try on. Then you can tell me, ‘kay hon?”_ _

__“...C-Chris…”_ _

__He held up his index and middle finger. “Two seconds.”_ _

__“Chris…” You watched as he scurried off to the back and into a side room. “Chris!” You shriveled up, looking around anxiously._ _

__At least this room wasn't crowded like usual. It was much nicer being there alone; not that it made it _completely ___nice._ _

___You looked around, your eyes tracing the shirts covered in band names and abstract designs lining the walls; belts that were hung, printed with different logos from various shows you’ve never had time to watch; tables topped with Harry Potter and Supernatural and Steven Universe figurines…_ _ _

___You never understood the appeal of this place._ _ _

___Suddenly, you were ripped from your curiosity as you heard some violent rustling of hangers in the back of the room. You froze, but as the sound continued, you couldn't help but want to investigate._ _ _

___“Chris…?” You whispered nearly inaudibly, tiptoeing towards the sound. As you stepped closer, you could see the shirts on a circular closet being jerked to the side and someone struggled to shove the close onto one side._ _ _

___Someone began to quietly grumble in a low, dark voice that made you squeal._ _ _

___The person suddenly stopped, letting out a sigh._ _ _

___After a few moments of silence, you decided to speak up, stepping around the side. “H-hello? Do you need help....?”_ _ _

___He looked up at you and you realized wasn't a human at all, but a skeleton. You always forgot that monsters were a thing until you were reminded by one showing up. There were only a few thousand of them, so they didn't actually come around that often._ _ _

___And when they did, they were known to be nasty._ _ _

___You immediately recognized him, remembering what happened earlier that morning._ _ _

___His eyes widened and you could see the red light in his left eye shrink to a pinprick. He then glared, baring his shiny, sharp teeth. “what?”_ _ _

___“What?” You quickly repeated._ _ _

___“you gotta problem?”_ _ _

___“noIdonthaveaproblem.”_ _ _

___He squinted suspiciously at you (how a skeleton’s face could change expression was beyond you) and let out a small sigh._ _ _

___“well, if you’ll excuse me, sweetheart, i’d like ta continue shoppin without some human breathing on my damn neck,” he spat, bitterly smiling, and you jumped at the harshness lining his tone._ _ _

___“S-sorry,” you said softly. “It’s just, uh…” as you attempted to continue, you watched as he walked past you, grumbling angrily. “Wait!”_ _ _

___Despite your request, he kept walking._ _ _

___“I-I need… I need my money back!” He suddenly stopped, but didn't turn around. You gulped, going on to your point. “A-all my m-money was on there… I-I won't be able to s-stay in college without that, I think… I-I really don’t know much about cards, but I don’t really think I can--”_ _ _

___“ok,” he spun around angrily, staring you down. “how the hell do you even know i took it, huh? what, the big scary skeleton stole from ya?”_ _ _

___“N-NO THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT!!!” You started to wave your arms frantically. “I-I just, well I passed out and you helped me up and you probably carried me into my house because there was a hot rag on my face and I’m almost positive that my money and card was in my pocket before that happened--although I guess there's a chance I misplaced it--whichwouldbeevenworsebecausethentherewouldbenowayoffindingitandIwouldntbeabletopayfordormsandIwouldgetkickedoutofcollegeand--”  
You were stopped mid-very-long-sentence as something hard smacked your face. It fell into your hands and once you caught it and held it properly, you recognized it as you card. “god, have it, will you just shut the fuck up?”_ _ _

___As requested, you closed your mouth._ _ _

___“you’re lucky you caught me on a good day,” he said angrily. “whatever, see you never, hopefully.”_ _ _

___As he walked away, you sighed happily, looking down at the card in relief. You were so happy to have your school money back, you didnt mind not getting back the 35 bucks. But… something didn’t feel right._ _ _

___“Wait,” you closed your eyes, back at it again with the bad decisions. He turned to face you, looking bored. “Uhm… how about… I t-take you out sometime?” His face immediately slacked with surprise, but he quickly returned to a deep scowl. “I-I just mean, if you took my card, you must need the money for something, and… I-I still haven't properly thanked you for… f-for taking me in.”_ _ _

___After a few moments of silence, the corners of his mouth lifted into a lewd grin. “you askin’ me on a _date ___, sweetheart?”_ _ _

____You gasped. “Oh, no! Nothing like that! J-just a friendly outing! T-totally platonic! I-I mean, not that I wouldn't date you, I’m just… not looking for anything right now? And I have to much crap going on? S-sorry if that's rude, but I’m not really into--”_ _ _ _

____“fuck, you talk a lot,” he rolled his eyes walking closer. “so, what is it then?”_ _ _ _

____“I-I, uh, we can...w-we can…” He smirked, leaning in close, and your eyes widened at the grim detail on his face. Everything he did was so animated and you could hardly register that he was even real. His breath was hot on your face and you watched in horror was he licked his teeth his a shiny, red tongue, but couldn't bring yourself to move. You froze and your heart got faster and you were sure that he would eat you._ _ _ _

____Instead, he wrapped his arm around the back of you, making you screech._ _ _ _

____He laughed, merely grabbing the phone out of the back of your pocket. You glared, “D-don’t do that!”_ _ _ _

____“well, ya can't really call me without my number, can ya?” He said smugly. You took deep breaths to calm yourself down as he entered your phone, typing in his number. He handed back the phone, smirking knowingly. “this better be a damn good “friendly outing”, hon,” he chuckled. “you owe me.”_ _ _ _

____“uh, r-right…”_ _ _ _

____He winked. “see ya round, sweetheart.”_ _ _ _

____You watched as he walked out, again, and did your best not to interrupt this time._ _ _ _

____“Oh darling, I found just the _cutest ___outfits,” Christ said as he entered the room, hangers with clothing lining his arms. “First, I have this dress made of lace that would really compliment your--”_ _ _ _

_____“S-sorry Chris, but can I make a rain check?”_ _ _ _ _

_____“Darling! I just got everything ready! Then you can tell me--”_ _ _ _ _

_____“I got it back, anyways.”_ _ _ _ _

_____“Got what back?”_ _ _ _ _

_____“N-nevermind… I…. I have to get ready.”_ _ _ _ _

_____“For what?”_ _ _ _ _

_____“A... friendly outing.”_ _ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hi on my tumblr! :3 ((asks were accidently off, but that tis fixed ;;-;;))
> 
> https://rainbow-flavoured.tumblr.com


	3. "Studying"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Okay, okay,” Chris’ voice rang through the speaker. 
> 
> “Yes!” You jumped in your seat. “Oh, I have all these techniques I can show you--I’ll bring my textbooks and some colour-coated sticky notes and some cute gel pens--”
> 
> “Wait, hon. If we’re gonna do this, I get to choose where we go to study.”
> 
> “Okay!” You chirped happily. “Uhm, I’m free after 7 tonight, unless that's too late.”
> 
> “No, that's actually perfect!” There was a strange bitter twang in Chris’ voice, though you didn't notice at the time. “I’ll pick you up?”
> 
> “Yeah, see ya then!”
> 
> “Buh-bye, darling.” _Click._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol, I always update these at night ;-; maybe that's why it doesn't make sense sometimes  
> Whoops

In the end, you didn't get ready for that “friendly outing” after you went home. In fact, you didn't get ready that whole day. Or the next.

Or the whole next week.

Or the week after that.

You sat, staring at the phone, thinking _just call him._ He _gave you_ his _number. He wants you to come._ But didn't go through with it.

You just sighed, putting your phone back in your pocket and resuming your studies. For those whole two weeks you sat and studied, buried head to toe in books and homework, hardly ever leaving school grounds until Chris finally accepted your offer to go study.

“Okay, okay,” Chris’ voice rang through the speaker. 

“Yes!” You jumped in your seat. “Oh, I have all these techniques I can show you--I’ll bring my textbooks and some colour-coated sticky notes and some cute gel pens--”

“Wait, hon. If we’re gonna do this, I get to choose where we go to study.”

“Okay!” You chirped happily. “Uhm, I’m free after 7 tonight, unless that's too late.”

“No, that's actually perfect!” There was a strange bitter twang in Chris’ voice, though you didn't notice at the time. “I’ll pick you up?”

“Yeah, see ya then!”

“Buh-bye, darling.” _Click._

You smiled to yourself. He was finally warming up to you…. after four years. Oh well, nice is nice, you guess. 

You finished up your worksheet and then ran to your closet to look for something cute to wear. Chris always made you feel like crap about your “horrid fashion sense”, so you always felt the need to dress up around him.

You settled with the cutest thing you owned, that being a loose summer dress covered in watercolour flowers with a pastel backdrop.

You twirled around in front of the mirror, smiling.

You were disappointed you had only practical shoes, but decided that your black converse looked pretty decent.

You packed up you things and popped some microwave burritos in the oven, scarfing them down just in time for Chris to text you and tell you he was outside.

You throw the dish in the sink and run out the door after grabbing your things, barely remembering your house key and phone.

You slung your backpack over your shoulder, smiling as you ran out to the car, but your face fell when you saw a couple other people in the back seat.

“Uhm, hey Chris…” You said quietly.

“Heya hon!” he smiled, leaning over the empty front seat. “Ready to study ‘till ya drop?”

“Are these, uh… a-are they coming too?” You meekly nodded to the people in the backseat.

“Oh,” Chris smirked. “Yeah! You don’t mind… do you?” There was a small twang in his voice that made you think you didn’t have a choice, but you stepped back. 

“Uhm, m-maybe I better stay here…”

Everyone in the backseat booed over the hip hop music blaring from the speakers until Chris turned it down and shot them a look. “C’mon, you’ve been bugging me for weeks. Everyone came _just for you._ ” He smiled, talking too sweetly for your own liking. “You’re not gonna leave us to study alone, are ya?”

“Uhm, n-no--”

“Then hop in!!” Chris slammed the door open, turning the music back up. You hesitantly scooted into the back seat, wriggling into place in between to sweaty guys that reeked of weed.

Oh boy.

As Chris started the car, one of the guys took your binder from your hands, throwing it into the trunk. “Won’t be needing that!”

“B-but--”

“Oh, and you’re already dressed up!” Chris interrupted.

“Oh, uh… y-yeah.” You shimmied from side to side, awkwardly pushing off of the guy next to you. “So, uh, Chris?”

“Yes?”

“Where, uh, where exactly are we going to uh… you know.”

“Study?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, see, hon,” Chris shrugged. “When I said ‘study’, I might have actually meant ‘go to a rave’.” 

You felt something bad twist in the pit of your stomach. “W-what?”

“Sorry to lie, but from the way you’ve been studying _so hard_ , I thought it would be good for you to get out!” From the unfaltering happiness in his tone, you knew that he wasn’t actually sorry. “Have some fun!”

“Uhm, I can have fun on my own, thanks!” You nervously chuckled. “I mean, hitting those books is pretty fun!”

“No, I mean some _real_ fun,” Chris smirked, turning a sharp corner that made you grip onto the guy next to you. 

You were about were about to argue back, but realized it was most likely futile. You sat in silence the rest of the ride, listening to the music blaring and the guys making dirty jokes that you couldn't understand, until you heard a soft, fast approaching beat of an unfamiliar hip hop song. “Chris… I don’t want to…”

“Oh, you’ll be fine,” he scoffed. “We’ll go in, meet a few babes, get some drinks, and be out before your bedtime at 9.” The guys in the back laughed and you hunched down further.

“I-I can be out as late as I want,” you mumbled. “B-but I don’t want to. Chris, p-please take me back.”

Chris rode the car in silence until they reached a house that was three stories tall. It was shaking with every beat from the massive speakers scattered throughout the place and there were lights of every imaginable colour shooting out from the windows. People were flooding in and out, jumping from the roof into the front and back pools, and screaming from the windows on the third story. Almost everyone there seemed to have alcohol on hand.

Chris parked the car on the curb right outside the front entrance.

“Okay, now here’s the deal,” Chris shut the music off, turning around to face you. “We’re going to this party. Now you can either come inside and be cool for once,” he spat, “or you can stay out here like a little five year old until the big kids get back.”

You stared at him, opening and closing your mouth to talk, but nothing came out.

“Fine,” Chris tapped the guy next to him in the front seat smirking, “we’ll be back by 11.”

“W-wait…!” You watched, shaking, as they all stepped out of the car, the guys bolting into the crowd and quickly beginning to get drinks of their own. You looked over to see Chris disappear into the building.

After a moment’s hesitation and a bad decision, you hopped out of the car and ran after him.

There were crowds of people, but you could see the occasional monster here and there. If you weren’t in such a panic, you might have stopped to look at them and think about their stories, but you had to find Chris.

You ran around, tempted to plug your ears and shield them from the blasting music, but didn’t want to look like a little child who lost their parents at the grocery store. So you weaved in and out of crowds, your panic slowly rising to your chest.

It was stuff like this that always made you question Chris’ intentions, but you couldn’t think about that now. Now, you just wanted to find him and convince him to leave.

You could feel as you became short of breath and you had to stop running. You would wear yourself out and pass out and that would not be the ideal situation at the moment.

You thought that people might give you weird looks, but you calmed down when you saw that people were too preoccupied embarrassing _themselves_ to worry about some random girl. You started to cough as a nearby activated smoke machine stole the fresh air from your lungs. You looked around for some water.

You stumbled, choking back a coughing fit, to a table full of leaking sodas and crushed bags of chips. Out of all of the things, a nice cup of water grabbed your eye. You thanked the gods for something relatively healthy, quickly grabbing the cup and downing it in a few gulps.

Your head seemed to clear up, but something didn’t seem quite right. Ignoring it, you took the time to instead look for Chris. There was no way you running around like a madman in these crowds would make you find him faster.

You took a deep breath, diving back into the crowds. You would think that Chris would be easy to find, but there were plenty of people there with bright pink hair and neck and arm tattoos. 

“Hey,” came a deep voice. You turned around to see a tall fish monster with the most comically big mouth you have ever seen. They wore a sloppy white tank top and baggy brown leggings that hardly covered anything, revealing gills and fins sticking from weird places.

You gulped, looking up at them. “U-uh, hello.”

“You lost, kid?” He rasped.

You glared, stumbling forward. “I-I’m not a kid.”

“Really? Cus you’re pretty small.”

“I’m v-very average for my age!” You pouted. “No, I’m just… I’m looking for someone.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, they’re uh…” You tried to focus on what Chris looked like, but you would too busy watching as the fish guy split and there was suddenly two of him. In fact, the whole room seemed to be doubled. You stumbled forward again, grabbing the monster for support.

“Woah, you ‘kay kiddo?”

“Y-yeah, fine, I j-just need to…. find my friend.” You lifted yourself off of the monster, starting to walk away. 

“Hey! I didn’t even get yer number!”

You paid the monster no attention, all of your focus centered on keeping yourself on your feet. Why were you so damn dizzy? Everything seemed far off and distant and blurred and you couldn’t see where you were going.

It didn’t feel like a panic attack; this was something else.

You started to shake violently, so you stopped, leaning against a wall. You tried to call for help, but couldn’t carry the sound very far.

As an afterthought, you pulled out your phone, nearly dropping it, looking through your contacts. You went to dial for Chris, but accidently clicked on your newly added contact: that skeleton.

Too hysterical to redial another number, you took what you had, holding the phone to your ear and praying that he picked up.

“hey,” rumbled a voice from your phone speaker. “finally decided to call, huh?”

“I-I need your help,” you tried to talk over the music, but your voice came out small and pathetic. “Please…!”

“woah, uh…” you were stable enough to hear music coming out of the speaker as well as around you.

“A-are you at t-the p-p-party?”

“jeez,” he chuckled. “wouldn’t have guessed ya were a psychic, sweetheart.”

“N-no, I need help… I-I don’t know what’s going on.”

There was a sigh. “yeah, ya don’t seem like the type ta go to a party like this.”

“I-I’m gonna throw up--I can’t s-see anything, I don’t--”

“okay, okay, jus’ calm down. where the hell are ya?” He almost sounded annoyed with you.

“O-on the first floor… uh…” You looked around, but everything was spinning. “Yeah…..”

“that it? there not, like a couch or a table to somethin?”

“I-I don’t know!” You clutched the phone tightly, your breathing becoming quickly more rapid. “P-please come--” you tried to finish, but you couldn’t get the words out before your body slumped to the floor.

☠️ ☠️ ☠️

 

You woke up to something warm pressed against your forehead. You were cold, really cold, but the heat slowly spread from your head to your neck to your chest and, eventually, across your whole body.

You took in a deep breath, slowly opening your eyes to see that skeleton leaning over you, his hand placed on your forehead. The moment you opened your eyes, he pulled back and crossed his arms like he was never touching you.

“mornin’, sweetheart. nice of ya to join us.” You swallowed hard and tried to sit up, but just fell back against the couch. “you really have a thing for passing out, huh?”

“Wha…?” You stared up at the ceiling as details from the party slowly came back to you. “O-oh…”

He sighed. “you’re a real fuckin’ pain in my ass, y’know that sweetheart?”

“I-I’m sorry…”

“if you’re _really_ sorry, you’ll get the hell out of my house and stop makin’ me do things for ya,” he spat.

You went to talk, but instead just looked down solemnly.

“Now, will ya jus’ get the fuck out?”

Again, you didn’t say anything. You wanted to apologize, but you didn’t know that anything would convince this guy to accept it.

He sighed. “fine.”

You looked up questionably.

“stay. whatever,” he shrugged, sitting up. “got nothin’ better to do.” He stood up from beside where you were lying down, stretching. “i’m gonna go sleep or somethin’.”

You watched as he started to walk out of the room, but called out to him. “W-wait!”

He rolled his eyes, turning around and giving you a bored look. “what.”

“I… n-never did take you out,” you said quietly. “And you kind of saved me… twice.” You could see him wince at the word ‘saved’. “How about… we go out. My treat, your choice.”

He just sighed again. “you really jus’ dunno when to stop, huh?” He scratched the back of his head. “you’re lucky i’m fucking starving.”

You smiled. “Okay!” You looked around, just now realizing that this wasn’t _your_ apartment this time. It was broken down, there was clothes and garbage covering the floor, the walls were yellow stained and peeling. “Uhm… Is this your place?”

“yeah, what of it?” he snapped. “it was closer.”

“U-uhm nothing’s wrong with it!” You waved your arms frantically. “Just wondering! Uh… how far out is it?”

“not far.” He said vaguely, shoving his hands in his pockets and fishing out a key. “welp, let’s go.”

“Wha--now?”

He looked back and forth. “yeah now. i’m hungry.”

“W-well I still don’t know why I passed out, I could be--”

“you drank out of some water, right?”

“I--” you thought back. “Uh, yeah?”

“first, most basic rule of partying: never drink outta a open drink,” he said, cocking an eyebrow. “you don’t go out much, do ya?”

“Uhm….”

He gave you a devilish smirk. “well, we’ll jus’ hafta change that, huh, sweetheart?”

“I… I guess.”

He started out of the house, opening the front door, having to push clothes out of its path.

You slowly stood up, regaining your balance before heading to the door and walking outside. You looked up to see that you were actually in a tiny, ghetto apartment complex that didn’t seem to have many other people inside. You weren’t actually completely sure it was still up and running. In front of the place was an empty parking lot covered in scattered broken glass and beer cans.

Suddenly, you realized it was daytime. You were so caught up in everything it took a minute to register what was really happening.

“Wait…” You stopped, turning back to him. “I-I can’t go out. I mean,” you nervously pushed stray hair in front of your face to behind your ear. “I have to get ready for Monday, for school, I have to talk to Chris and get my homework out of his car, and… I-I just got drugged I guess? And got taken home by some guy? A-and I don't even know your name!”

He sighed, walking towards you after shutting his apartment door. “man, you need to loosen up.” He nudged your shoulder. “worry ‘bout that crap later.”

“B-but--!”

“look, sweetheart,” he consoled. “you owe me and i’m really not in the mood ta argue. let’s jus’ get some fuckin’ food.”

You stopped, thinking about asking him to drop you off, but… you found yourself really wanting to go with him.

So, you made what seemed the first _purposeful_ bad decision in your life, and followed him.

He walked you over to the only vehicle in the parking lot, that being an older, glossy black motorcycle. Despite how short he was, he hopped onto the machine with ease after pushing up the kickstand.

He revved it up, tilting it to the side for you to hop on. “well? hop on, sweetheart.”

You took a deep breath and, despite what seemed like better judgement, got on behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about there not being a lot of Sans in this one. I'm still trying to set stuff up, but I know that people can get annoyed with OC's.  
> This next chapter will be more about you hanging out and talking with Sans, and hopefully its a little longer. This is only about...9 pages? Double spaced. I don't know if that's a good length or not. Do you guys want them longer?  
> Either way, hope you liked the chapter :3 Come bug me on my tumblr while I work on the next one! https://rainbow-flavoured.tumblr.com


	4. "Friendly Outting"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “here we are, hon,” he breathed, stretching his back and lifting his stubby arms into the air. You quickly hopped off before he even had the chance to look back at you.
> 
> “So… where is ‘here’, exactly?” You asked.
> 
> “my…” he stopped himself, starting over. “someone i know owns a place here. he’s an ass, but makes pretty good food.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHA I didn't update this waaay later for once! Are people even still interested? Oh well. It's only, what, 20 smthn days later?  
> I wanted to start updating every week but h a h, we'll see how that goes for me
> 
> Anyways, things are starting to get veryveryverysemi romantic now so fun fun fun  
> lets go on a journey with sans and the reader on their very short "friendly outting"

Nothing was real.

At least it didn't feel like it.

You grabbed tightly onto the skeletons waist, using him to shield yourself from the wind that was threatening to slap you in the face if you moved even the tiniest bit. You looked to your side, watching the scenery pass by in a dark blur. Your hands had gone numb and your eyes went out of focus.

It was kind of like you were in a video game. You were convinced that any moment they would take you out of a virtual simulator and you would be in your computer tech class; and as the day went on, that seemed more realistic than anything.

If that wasn't the case, you were just an idiot with bad judgment.

Yesterday had passed, you missed all of you classes, Chris still had your things, no one knows where you are except this skeleton…

How you even survived until college was a mystery to you. It wouldn't be the first time you’ve gotten into a terrible situation. In fact, you’ve probably been in worse. 

Didn't make this any better, but at least you knew you had a chance of survival.

You wanted so badly to go kicking and screaming until this skeleton decided to drag you home, but… you _did_ owe him a meal.

It's thinking like that that got you into this in the first place; might as well keep it consistent, right? So, you held on tight, even tighter every so often when he violently turned a corner, until you finally got into a busier part of downtown.

It was one of those streets where there were 20 shops on one block, all crammed together and covered in graffiti. In other words: really shady.

In no regards to the law, the skeleton weaved through the cars on the still road, even running over curbs and sidewalks if the time served right. You tried asking him to ‘Please be safe!’ a few times, but were rewarded with a snarky ‘what? can’t hear ya, sweetheart’ each time. At a certain point you just gave up, closing your eyes and wishing for the best.

You only opened your eyes once you noticed the wind slowing down and then a violent jolt as the bike came to a sudden stop. He had pulled into a strange alleyway by the side of the building. 

“here we are, hon,” he breathed, stretching his back and lifting his stubby arms into the air. You quickly hopped off before he even had the chance to look back at you. You felt like getting on your knees and kissing the sweet, sweet ground, but you had already made enough of a fool of yourself today… or yesterday, you guess.

“So… where is ‘here’, exactly?” You asked, stopping to feel your chest for that familiar lump in your bra that was your wallet. You sighed with relief, just glad that out of all of the things, you didn’t lose that. 

“my…” he stopped himself, starting over. “someone i know owns a place here. he’s an ass, but makes pretty good food.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” you smiled. Suddenly, you realized that the sun was already pretty low in the sky. You must’ve slept longer than you thought.

“yeah,” he shrugged, walking past you toward the exit of the alley. He looked back at you, his eyes slowly lowering down to your ass, and smiled, saying in a low, sarcastic voice, “and the view is great, too.”

Ripped out of your thoughts, you looked down only to notice that the dress you were wearing had caught onto the strap around your shoulder, revealing your whole lower side as well as most of your back.

What were you _thinking_ getting on a motorcycle in a silk summer dress?

Your face flushed a bright red as you quickly tried to untangle it… and just made it worse by getting some of your hair (that came out of its bun last night) into the mix. You covered your face in shame, facing toward him with your butt the other way.

He looked far too amused. “uh… need some help? sweetheart?”

You gulped, looking down at your feet. “Y-yes please.”

He laughed to himself, walking over to you. “i’m really tempted to jus’ leave ya like this.”

“P-please don’t!”

He rolled his eyes, going to behind you. “nah, i’ll get it. you _are_ payin’.” 

Before he could help, you swerved around, making him give you a bored glance. “what now?”

“J-Just, uhm…” You could feel your face get even hotter. “Don’t, uh, look too much?”

“trust me, hon, i don’t wanna stare at your flat ass.”

As much as that hurt, you sighed, allowing him to go behind you. He let out a joking whistle, making you shoot him a glare. He just chuckled, getting to work.

He stood there for almost a solid minute, tugging at your hair and undoing the dress from the strap. Finally, he got it out and you were relieved to feel the end of your dress hit your legs. You didn't, however, feel very good about the strange snap you heard. You were about to ask what it was, but when you saw him throw a chunk of hair on the floor, you put two and two together.

“Oh my--!” You felt your hair, frantically feeling for a missing section. “H-how much did you--”

“s’fine. ya can’t even notice.” He said coolly, walking past you as he shoved a retractable knife into his pocket. “leggo, moneybags.”

When you felt that there wasn't a noticeable amount of hair missing, you hesitantly dusted off your dress, making sure it was covering everything, and walked off after him. 

You followed him inside a building, if you could call it that, right at the turn out of the alley. It was a quaint, dimly lit bar with very few people inside. I'm fact, as you looked around, you came to the conclusion that there weren't _any_ people; just monsters. There were a few of them scattered here and there, and none of them looked friendly.

You didn't really hear much about the monsters coming to the surface; just that they were cruel. But there was so little of them, not even a few thousand, that they didn't pose much of a threat. And it's not like the last time they put up a fight it went very smoothly… 

But before the skeleton, you’d never even seen a monster, so it was kind of overwhelming even seeing the five, if that, that were all clumped together in one place.

He walked inside and, although you couldn't tell how, something about his demeanor changed. He lead you through the center, up to a line of tall stools all in a row in front of a bar counter. He sat down, gesturing for you to get next to him.

“how old are ya, again?” He asked in a loud voice. You flinched as he did so; the whole place was so quiet, talking seemed unnecessarily disruptive.

“Old enough,” you said softly, fidgeting in your seat. There was so much mystery between the two of you, you felt like you needed to stick to the theme.

He smirked at that. “right.”

“But, uh…” You continued. “It wouldn't hurt if I knew your name.”

He thought about it for a moment, but then just shrugged. “i dunno, sweetheart. I kinda like this thing we got goin’ on.” He smiled. “mysterious, i guess.”

As unnerving as that was, you realized that maybe it was for the best. If he didn’t know your name, maybe he couldn’t find you after all of this was over and you picked things up like normal.

“Yeah,” you half-heartedly agreed. “Right.”

“so, seeing as you’re ‘old enough’,” he smirked, “howzabout we order a few drinks?”

You froze at that. “I’ve, uh, never really drank before,” you said quietly.

“well, sweetheart, that’s jus’ gonna have to be fixed.” As innocent as he seemed about it, it didn’t feel quite right.

“L-Look,” you started almost inaudibly. “I can stand for a lot of things. I _have_ been standing for a lot of things. But, I’m sorry, I just… can’t get drunk.” You paused. “Not now.”

He sighed, rolling his eyes. “lame. more for me, i guess.” You sighed, relaxing. At least you made one semi-responsible decision. Getting drunk on top of everything at the moment would make this situation that much worse. Plus, you had the nagging feeling you might need to drive this guy home somehow, and if both of you were intoxicated…

“hey!” You jumped as he suddenly shouted out towards behind the counter. “grillbz!”

After a few moments, a purple fire elemental monster came out from a side door behind the counter, looking less than amused. “Oh,” he sighed, “you’re back.”

“I’m _back_ every goddamn day,” the skeleton smirked stiffly. “what else is new?”

“I suppose that lady of yours is,” Grillbz rasped, glancing in your direction. “It really is surprising how many women you get laid,” he spat bitterly. “That goes for men as well.”

The skeleton glared. “fuck you. you’re jus’ jealous _you_ haven’t had sex in years.”

“It’s not like that,” you added quickly. “I just owe him a meal.”

“Yeah, that’s how it tends to start out.”

“what the fuck would you know?” The skeleton spat defensively. “why’re you suck a prick today?”

“Might as well give the girl a warning,” Grillbz said calmly, his back straight as he towered almost a good foot over the skeleton. He looked over at you, his head cracking and flickering from side to side. “Look. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay far away from him.” He glanced back at him as he hunched over angrily. “He’s nothing but trouble.”

“yea, go ahead and listen to hot head over here,” the skeleton hissed. “look, we’ll gladly take our business elsewhere, so how about you jus’ get me a fuckin’ drink?”

“I don’t think anyone here would mind you taking your leave.”

You looked between the two of them and could feel yourself sweating in your dress. There was obviously so much animosity built between them, but you could feel that this was a lot more strained then their usual conversations. And you couldn’t help but feel that it was because of your presence. 

“I…” You started, making them both turn and glare in your direction. “I didn’t mean to upset anyone… I just…” you gulped. “I shouldn’t have come,” you said quietly. “This whole thing was a mistake. I can--” You scooted your chair out, causing it to screech against the floor, standing up. “I can leave. I’ll just… have to pay you back some other time.”

The skeleton huffed out a breath, scooting his own chair back as well. “nah, s’fine. the customer service here is just shit.” He stood up, turning away from Grillbz. “whatever. we’ll just go somewhere else. fuck this place, it sucks anyways.” He shoved his hands into his pockets, walking towards the door without looking back. “let’s go.”

You watched him walk away, looking back at Grillbz. He was still glaring and his arms were folded, but there was a hint of a sad glimmer in his glowing eyes. He directed them over at you, his expression softening. “Look out for yourself,” he said in a low, gravelly voice that the skeleton surely wouldn’t be able to hear. “And get the fuck away from him.”

“you comin’ or not?” He shouted, making you flinch. 

“Coming!” You waved at him, and looked back to tell Grillbz goodbye, but when you turned around he was already gone. You waited a moment before jogging over to beside the skeleton, and out the bar’s door.

“man, that place sucks,” he mumbled as you caught up to him. “so hard jus’ ta get a goddamn drink these days.”

“..I’m sorry.” 

For a moment, he looked taken aback. “what?”

“Uhm,” you cleared your throat. “That you’re upset? I just… kinda thought this whole thing might’ve be fun, but…” You shrugged. “But I’m sorry.”

He paused, but then let out a chuckle. “you’re a fuckin’ weirdo, y’know that?”

You smiled softly, exhaling through your nose and looking down at your feet as you walked.

He started to walk back towards the bike, but you stopped him by calling out to him. “Uhm!”

“what?”

“Well, I mean,” you looked down nervously. “We’re down here anyways. How about we just… walk around?” That was your chance. You could’ve gone home right then, but.. The moment you went back was the moment that everything went back to normal. You would have to deal with Chris and your lost things and school and money and work. Right now, everything was magical and fake. You thought, despite what was completely better judgement, that you could indulge in it for a while.

After a moment, he shrugged, shuffling back to you. “ok.”

The two of you walked down the busy city streets in silence, listening to cars go by and indistinct conversations as people walked past. The cold autumn air bit at your nose and tickled your arms and legs, but you tried your best to ignore it. Once it started to get darker, you might say something.

“it isn’t true,” he said suddenly, making you flinch and look over at him.

“What?”

“uh, what grillbz said back there,” he explained. “he’s just a dick.”

“About the, uh…?”

“yeah.” 

There were a few more seconds of silence before you spoke up again.

“I believe you,” you said softly.

When he didn’t reply, you slowly turned away, averting your gaze up to the sky. It was painted with pink and blue pastels, the horizon tipped with silver and gold. In a few minutes, the light would disappear completely, and it would get dark.

“I need to get back,” you said in defeat. “I have… so much stuff to do.”

“yeah,” he sighed. “i have some shit, too.” He craned his neck, looking ahead. “we jus’ circled around so we should get back in a bit.”

You nodded, crossing your arms and hugging yourself. As they light drained from the air by the second, so did the temperature drop. By the time you reached his bike, you were shivering from the cold.

Yeah, you chose the _perfect_ day to wear a dress.

As soon as he got onto his seat, you hopped on after him, putting the back of your dress under you butt to ensure that it wouldn’t fly up again. He started up the bike and as he pulled back out of the alley, you pressed yourself against him and wrapped your arms around his waist.

The wind was harsh against your bare arms and legs and stung your eyes as you bolted down the dark streets. Suddenly, as you paid closer attention, you felt that for a skeleton he was surprisingly soft and comfortable to be against. You leaned in closer only to realize that he was also unrealistically warm.

As invasive as it might have been, you were so cold; you leaned your head against him and tightly gripped onto his ribcage, pressing your chest against his back. His body stiffened underneath you and you felt as he got even warmer. It was like hugging a radiator, he was so warm. You thought that this must have been some of the magic people talked about monsters having because there was no way that someone could naturally be that warm; especially someone with no blood running through them.

You closed your eyes and you were lucky that you didn’t fall asleep as he drove you out of the downtown area, all the way back to campus. As your house got closer and closer, you could feel something drop into your gut.

You had no idea how you were going to get your things back from Chris. You had all of your homework you were working on in there as well as notes from several classes. You missed two days of lectures and work, you didn’t know how you were going to catch up.

Well, it was too late in the day to worry about most of that. Chris was likely out doing more partying, so it wasn’t a very good idea to just show up at his place. You supposed you would have to wait until morning and stop by Hot Topic and talk to him then.

The skeleton followed your directions as you shouted them over the motorcycle’s engine until you finally got to outside your dorm’s building. He halted the bike, finally cutting off the loud rumbling.

“Thank you,” you said, hopping off. “I’m sorry that I didn’t really b-buy you anything…”

He shrugged. “s’whatever. we’ll jus’ go out some other time. today sucked, anyways.”

“Uh,” you smiled politely. “Yeah. Feel free to stop by sometime.”

He looked over at the building with a strange expression. “well, i’ll get outta here.”

“Oh! Right.” You twisted your face. “It was nice hanging out.”

He chuckled. “whatever you say, sweetheart.” He revved the bike back up, and with that, he hurriedly kicked off the floor and left without so much as a goodbye. You meekly waved, but he was already gone.

You sighed, looking back at your dorm building. As you walked inside and down the dark, dimly lit hallways, you had the feeling everything was going to feel really boring from now on compared to what happened these last two days. The halls and door to people’s rooms seemed overwhelmingly dull.

You gasped when you finally reached you door, running over to the things that were dropped in front of it.

You binder’s papers were scattered all over the floor and many of the paged were soaked in what was probably alcohol. Someone had written over your handwriting on some of the pages in sharpie, reading things like, “loser” and “bitch” and “party foul.” You looked at them, sitting down on the floor beside it all, and felt tears sting at your eyes.

You sucked in a sharp breath as the water streamed down your cheeks, getting up and gathering the papers. You scooped them up into a pile as to carry them all inside in one trip. You hadn’t even noticed you were missing you phone and house key until you saw them buried beneath the papers.

At least they had _some_ decency as to give them back.

Your door was already unlocked, and you were over relieved to notice that the inside was untouched. You plopped down all of your papers on your bed, heading into the kitchen to make some tea. You just needed to sit down and relax for a while.

Although they were trashed, at least you had everything, as far as you could tell, back. You made a nice, warm cup of tea, changed into pajamas, and snuggled up in your bed, ready to organize your binder again. But instead, you sat back for a while, going over earlier events.

It had been such a crazy few nights. It _had_ only been two days, but it felt like you were gone for weeks. The whole thing could’ve been avoided if you weren’t such an idiot, but you weren’t sure that’s what you would have wanted.

Taking a sip of your tea, you buried yourself deeper into your blanket.

You wondered if you would ever really see that skeleton again. And as much as you hated to admit it… you really hoped that you would.


	5. A Change of Perspective (Sans POV) Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I had no idea what the fundraiser was for, and frankly I didn’t care. Just go in, take the money, and get the hell out of there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two updates in one weekend?! Whaaaaaaat
> 
> I have no idea if people will like the whole Sans POV being a part of the story, so please give me any thoughts you have on it. I won't be rewriting every chapter to fit his point of view, but just the ones that will move the story along. I rewrote this with purpose owo I'll even do some from his POV that aren't rewrites and just chapters in themselves, when the time serves right.
> 
> But, this was just an experiment, hence it being a shorter chapter, so we'll see how this goes

I pushed myself against the wall, peaking around the corner before casually walking down another hallway. It was pretty late and no one was around, but I couldn’t be too careful; there were too many people that knew my face around here. 

I didn’t go to the college, god no, but I came here often enough. This place was a gold mine. Students constantly left their shit everywhere: wallets, jewelry, shoes, phones… all sorts of things I could bring back. Usually I just wandered around the place, gathering what I could to sell later, but today I came here with more purpose.

Undyne figured out that they were having some dumb fundraiser thing at the school, and decided that we should raid the place. And, of fucking course, me being the most recent member, got elected to go. Doggo would’ve gone, but he ended up being busy, and everyone else in the whole gang is pretty much useless. I knew Undyne would get suspicious if I refused yet another mission, so I went.

I had no idea what the fundraiser was for, and frankly I didn’t care. Just go in, take the money, and get the hell out of there. 

How exactly I would _find_ that money was a mystery to me, but I always figured something out. Couldn’t be that hard.

So, quietly and carefully, I wandered through the school in search of at least information that could be useful to finding out where the money would be. I glanced down the hall, turning yet another corner, reaching some dorm room doors.

Probably wouldn’t be anywhere down here, but maybe there was a poster or something.

I stopped in the middle of the hall, looking behind me. Man, I wished I could just leave. I hated that I had to be out so late, and on such a stupid run. But I knew Undyne would kick my ass later if I came back empty handed.

Pulling me out of my thoughts, I stumbled as something hit me from behind.

_Thud._

I turned around, looking for the source of whatever the hell that was, and my eyes slowly fell down to my feet where a small female human, likely a college student, was draped over them. “what the fuck.”

I stared down blankly, oblivious as to what to do. I shook my foot out from under her, turning my head sideways and looking her over. “uh,” I mumbled, shimmying to the side. “ain’t _my_ problem.” Just as I was about to get the hell out of there, I listened as her breathing got quick and rapid.

I looked back. Her face was pale and her whole body was violently shaking. I knew that if I was with the rest of the gang, they would gladly leave her to die. That’s what people do when they’re in gangs. 

But…

“goddamnit,” I grumbled, walking back over to her and squatting down. I put my hand on her cheek; she was burning up. I mumbled angrily to myself, draping her arm over my shoulder and picking her up. When I couldn’t lift her all of the way, I reluctantly assisted myself with some magic. 

I reached into her back pocket, pulling out her wallet and looking inside. I was searching for her ID where I could look at her name and find out where she lived, but luckily there was a little slip of paper that fell out that had all of the info I needed. Scrawled in nearly unreadable chicken scratch, she had written down her email password, her phone and debit number, her class dates, and lastly, her room number. 

I looked around and, thank god, her room was just two doors down.

I put the wallet back into her pocket, mostly using magic to lift her over to her dorm where I swore under my breath when I couldn’t find a key on her. Just before I was about to bash the door in, I tried the knob and it was already unlocked. I fist pumped, dragging her inside and kicking the door shut behind me.

I plopped her down on the first piece of furniture I saw, that being a three-cushion couch, and sighed with relief once I shut my magic off. My eyes turned from a deep red to a soft white as I freed myself from all use. I didn’t very often, and I always forgot how relaxing it felt.

Sitting by her feet, I looked over at her. She was still shaking, but looked slightly better.

I slid down onto the floor, shuffling over next to her head on my knees. 

I didn’t know much, or really anything, about humans, or what they need when they’re sick. I brought my hand to her face again to check her temperature, but this time I left it there a little longer. I had no idea human skin was so soft. They usually never let me get anywhere near them; in fact, this was probably the closest I’ve ever been.

I ran thumb over her cheek, resting my hand on her neck. They were so warm, too. It was amazing how they could heat themselves without magic. Snapping out of my thoughts, I noticed that she leaned herself into my hand, and looked very relaxed. As an experiment, I used some slight magic to heat my hand; she seemed to like that.

As curiosity got the better of me, I thought back to people talking about heart beats. I never really believed it was a real thing, but you never really know until you see for yourself. I looked at her calm face and could feel myself get warm. 

I always hated that magic was linked with emotions, so I tended to heat up when I felt anything extreme. Usually I knew why, but this time I didn’t really know _what_ I was feeling. I just knew that this human was totally dead out and I really wanted to know if the rumours were true.

I looked back and forth as if someone might be watching me and, when no one was, I slowly started to lift my hand off of her cheek and down to her chest. That’s where it was, right? Below the neck or something.

Instead, before I could touch her again, I stood up, shoving my hands in my pockets. 

Whatever, this was so dumb. It probably wasn’t even true. Not that I cared.

Her face had scrunched up after I let go of her, so I went over to the counter, picked up a rag I found near the sink, and ran it under some hot water. I walked back over to her and, being careful not to touch her again, laid the rag on her forehead.

She would be fine.

I quickly went over to the door, opening it, when I noticed a poster hanging up just across the hall from the room.

Was that there before?

I read over it and, believe it or not, it was about the fundraiser. I must’ve been so busy with the girl, I missed it.

It talked about how you could go to the front office or to the stands they had around the school and donate to a girl in the school who had cancer. 

Fuck, man, this day just kept making me feel shittier and shittier. Okay, I ain’t a good guy, but cancer? Fucking _cancer_? How the hell could I take the money they’re raising for some kid with cancer?

I slammed the door, shutting myself inside again. 

Well, I couldn’t go back empty handed.

I walked back over to the girl, rolling her slightly over, just enough where I could reach back into her back pocket and take her wallet. I dug inside, pulling out the piece of paper with her card information, her card, and a lump of cash.

For a moment, I looked back at her face, but just shook my head, taking the money and putting the wallet back.

Whatever. I didn’t even care. She didn’t matter. She’s living it up in a nice dorm and going to college, I was sure she could get more money. I needed this money way more than she did.

Without looking back, I got the hell out of that dorm, slamming the door behind me.

_I didn’t care. She didn’t matter._ She’s just another dumb fucking human.

And it wasn’t like I was ever going to see her again.


	6. yay holidays are f u n

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end of the term was already quickly approaching (just two more weeks!), so maybe you could take a break; meet some people…  
> How you would do that exactly was a mystery to you, but maybe something would come up. You _were_ more of a wait-for-fate-to-take-the-wheel kind of person than a get-out-there-yourself one. So, instead of ‘getting out there,’ you just sighed and got back to work.  
>  But, in the middle of one of your ‘study sessions,’ as you liked to call them, your phone started to ring. You picked it up and it read: 
> 
> INCOMING CALL: SKELETON

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm baaaaack :D Sorry it's been, like, 2 months...  
> But this chapters about 8000 MOTHER FUCKIN WORDS so I hope it suffices ;3; It's almost as long as all of the previous chapter combined... about 20 or so pages.  
> AND WE'RE FINALLY INTO GANG VIOLENCE so fun fun funfunfun.
> 
> Enjoy the chapter ;3c  
> And make sure to come to my tumblr for some concept art on this and other Undertale stuff :D https://rainbow-flavoured.tumblr.com

Slowly, things got back on track.

You successfully copied down all of your notes, got homework you missed from your teachers, and had plenty of time to get back on schedule with the rest of the students in your classes. 

Every once in awhile, you would glance down at your phone and think of calling that skeleton, but never got around to it. After days of procrastinating the task and burying yourself in homework, days turned into weeks and before you knew it, Halloween was quickly approaching.

You went almost the entire September not making any contact with him and you weren't quite sure whether that was a good or bad thing. Either way, the anticipation kept you on your toes to the point that you were beginning to stop thinking about Chris.

Now _this_... this was probably a good thing.

You had been friends with Chris for so long and not talking to him for a couple weeks was strange. You tried calling a few times and stopping by his house, but when he didn't respond to your texts, you decided that you had better things to do; even though you were still checking your phone every few days just in case.

But, the year was still young. You had plenty of time to meet _new_ people and make friends, although it sounds a lot easier than it actually is. You found yourself just as quiet as you've always been in you classes and even this early in the year, people were already forming friend groups.

Plus, it wasn't like you were a teenager anymore. People didn't go around asking what your favorite colour was and be your best friend forever when you said blue. At this time in your life, people didn’t make long-lasting friends very easily.

But, the end of the term was already quickly approaching (just two more weeks!), so maybe you could take a break; meet some people…

How you would do that exactly was a mystery to you, but maybe something would come up. You _were_ more of a wait-for-fate-to-take-the-wheel kind of person than a get-out-there-yourself one. So, instead of ‘getting out there,’ you just sighed and got back to work.

But, in the middle of one of your ‘study sessions,’ as you liked to call them, your phone started to ring. You picked it up and it read: 

INCOMING CALL: SKELETON

followed by a clever little picture of a question mark for his profile picture.

He must’ve kept your number from that time you called him at the party.

As you were about to answer, you gave it a second thought and before you could even touch the phone, he hung up quickly afterward.

Dang it.

You quickly picked up the device and, on a split second whim, pressed redial and held the phone hesitantly against your ear. Him not being the kind of person, uh _monster_ , that would come to somebody, you figured it might be important.

The first time, it quickly went to an non-personalized voice mail message. The second time, it rang for almost a full minute before it hung up again.

Luckily, when you decided to try a third time, he answered.

“yeah?” his deep voice boomed through your tiny speaker.

“Uhm, hi!” Your voice cracked and you could feel your face heat up as you cleared your throat. You hated taking calls. “I, uh, n-noticed you called! Just… wanted to make sure you didn't need something.”

“nah, m’fine,” he mumbled. “jus accidently dialed ya.”

For an unknown reason, you could feel your heart drop. “Oh.” There were a few seconds of silence before you piped up again. “Well, uh, it's been awhile, huh?”

“look,” you could practically hear him rolling that red eye of his. “i dun have time for small talk. ya got what ya wanted, i’m fine. we good?”

“Well…” You paused.

“sweetheart--”

“I was just thinking…” Hesitantly biting your lip, you continued. “Maybe we could hang out again?”

“uh.”

“You know!” You laughed nervously. “Halloween is coming up and… you, probably have plans, huh?” Your face got even hotter as you went on. “I’m sorry. I’ll let you go.”

“well,” he dragged out the word, and you thought that maybe he was thinking about it. “you have plans?”

“U-uh…” You thought back to your mental calendar that had nothing but homework written all over it. “Heh, uhm, no.”

There was a long pause. “well, i did hafta go to this party, but it’ll be lame as hell anyway. nice ta have an excuse not ta go, i guess “

You smiled.

An excuse. You’d take that.

“Sure! Sounds awesome,” you chirped, straightening your back. “Uh, when was the party?”

“on halloween?” he droned.

“Oh,” you sharply exhaled. “Right, duh. So, you wanna meet me here, or..?”

He thought for a moment before replying. “how bout we jus’ meet up right outside campus. at that, uh, thing. out front.”

“The statue?”

“yea, that.”

“Ok! Sounds great!” You couldn’t help but let your smile stretch further across your face. You felt like his outing would go a lot smoother than the last one. It _was_ Halloween, your favorite time of year. You just loved the smell and the atmosphere and the food… you couldn’t wait. “See you then!”

Without so much as a goodbye, he hung up the phone, but you didn’t let that bother you. He was warming up to you and that’s what mattered… it mattered, you weren’t so sure.You supposed it was because he didn’t seem like the type of person to open up very often, so him willingly hanging out with you was almost like an accomplishment.

Well, either way, at least now you had something to look forward to. And it turns out, it was enough to make the following weeks fly by. As you wrote essays and papers, you thought about where you would go and what food you would eat and what you would wear and whether or not you would show up in costume and what you two would talk about and how fun it might be… Okay, maybe you were getting your hopes up a _small_ bit. But, as much as you tried to look at it realistically, you couldn’t help but get really excited about the events to come.

You just… really liked Halloween.

After a few days, you forgot about Chris completely; you stopped checking your phone and asking whoever was driving you that day to stop by his house on the way to school just in case. All of your energy was focused on schoolwork and the holidays. You found yourself not being bothered by all of the noise in the class and lunch rooms, not complaining when a teacher gave you extra homework or held you after the bell to tell you about their personal lives, and overall just… happier.

You wondered if this is what people who had a lot of friends felt like when they made plans, or if you eventually just get numb to the feeling. You couldn’t ever imagine taking this for granted. You realized that this was just everyday behavior for most people; people tended to make plans with other people. But you hadn’t gone out like this in what felt like years. Not that ended up well, anyways.

But, as Halloween got closer, your excitement slowly died down and faded into more anxiety than anything. You were worried that this would just end up like last time. You really just wanted to take a day off and have a good time, but you didn’t know if that was how this would end up.

So, after many days of consideration and lots of deep breaths, you phoned up the skeleton about a week before Halloween.

He didn’t pick up the first time, which made you kind of relieved, to be honest. You just shrugged, putting your phone back. Maybe it was a sign you should just wait. 

You jumped as your phone started to loudly vibrate before you could put it all the way into your pocket.

He was returning your call.

You panicked, nearly throwing the phone, but just took another deep breath and answered. “H-Hello?” You squeaked quietly. You’ve been working so intently that you haven’t really been talking with other people that much; your voice would need a bit of warming up.

“ya called?”

“Oh! Uhm, right,” you chuckled. “I was just wondering--Halloween is coming up and I wanted to know if you had any plans as to where we were going?”

“not really,” he breathed. “jus’ gonna walk around or somethin’, scare some kids. you got somewhere ta be?”

“No,” you said, shaking your head. “Just… wanted to know, I suppose.”

“i guess,” you could practically hear him shrugging.

“Uhm, but if you want,” you sang timidly. “I know where some cool attractions are!” When he didn’t respond, you continued. “Just some houses with lights, and some of them give out treats--I know this place with warm scones--and possibly some haunted houses.”

After a few more seconds, he replied. “maybe the haunted house,” he grumbled reluctantly.

You smiled. “Sounds great!” And with that, you said your goodbye just before he hung up. As soon as he did so, you mentally slapped yourself.

Haunted house…

You were just terrified at the thought of one, but you felt like you needed to say _something_.

After a few more minutes of thinking and self deprecation, you got back to your work.

The next day, a little less nervous, you called him up again to ask about costumes.

He said that he was too lazy to dress up, but he wouldn’t mind if _you_ showed up in a sexy cat outfit. You just grumbled angrily and he laughed. Him teasing you slowly turned into you ranting about different costume ideas and that turned into past Halloween costumes and parties.

As you finished up your embarrassing 3rd grade party story, you realized that he hadn’t been talking about himself all that much.

“Yeah..” You chuckled. “Uhm, what about you?”

“what _about_ me?” He said after a delayed time period.

“Come on, you have to have some funny Halloween stories.”

“...uh, not really, sweetheart,” you listened as he repositioned himself, rustling against the speaker on his phone. “never really been inta holiday shit.”

“Really?” You asked. “You seem like someone who would like to party.”

He laughed at that, making you raise a questionable brow. “uh, no fucking way. who would love a bunch of sweaty humans all crammed together in a hot room full of bad music? yea, no thanks.”

“Well, I’m glad, because I’m the same way,” you chuckled. “I’d rather just… read, or something.”

“yea. i mean, minus the reading part.” 

You both talked for a while more about virtually nothing before he said he had to be somewhere. You said goodbye and he hung up again without a word.

As the week went on, though, you kept finding small excuses to call him and ask him something. With everyday, the calls got more frequent and you were on for longer. You found yourself finishing your work early just to have time to speak with him.

You two talked a lot that week, though mostly just you, with him making the occasional comment; but talked, nonetheless. By the day before Halloween, although he didn't share much, you felt like you knew a lot more about him. All of that reading in English class really helped with your “gathering context clues” skills.

With everything on your mind, the following week flew by and, finally, Halloween was here.

You had taken a huge test in the midst of all the chaos, which made you even more exhausted that morning. Luckily it wasn't so bad, because it was only first term, but the next one was supposed to be way more difficult.

You took a deep breath. You would relax this one day, hang out with the skeleton, have a good time, and _then_ study. You’d worry about school after today. You definitely deserved a while off; even if “a while” was just a day.

You were going to dress up but, with the absence of the party, you decided you would just look silly. You didn't have any edgy clothing to wear just for the spirit, either. Everything you owned was either overly formal or bright and flamboyant.

So, you decided to go with classic orange and black.

You found some black leggings and wore those, along with a black tank top covered by a neon orange jacket. As you looked in the mirror, you thought the leggings might be a bit too showy, so slipped some denim, cut-off shorts over them.

Man, Chris would hate this outfit.

At that thought, you could feel your mood start to deflate, but then perked up again when you remembered that Chris gave you a wire headband in the shape of cat ears.

You dug into your desk drawer and laughed in victory as you pulled them out and weaved them through your hair and into place.

You looked at yourself in the bathroom mirror, giggling. It wasn't exactly “sexy” like the skeleton had suggested, but you figured he would still get a kick out of it.

You felt for your wallet in your bra, and keys in your pocket alongside your phone, and took a deep breath.

Today would be fun.

It was still hours before nighttime, but you could just hardly wait. You couldn't believe you actually had plans on Halloween. Or at all, to be honest.

One last time, you called the skeleton up, just to finalize the plans. You always had the sinking feeling before events like these that you’d get the place wrong or show up at the wrong time.

“Hello!” You chirped as soon as you heard the click that meant he was on the other line.

“heya.”

“Just wanted to make sure we were still meeting at the statue.”

“yup.”

“Uhm, around what time, do you think?”

“...what time does it get dark?”

“This time of year? Around eight.”

“eight it is, then.”

“Cool!”

“that it then? s’kinda in the middle of somethin’.”

“Oh!” You jumped, feeling your face get hot. “I-I’m sorry, didn't mean to interrupt!”

“s’whatever.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to it!”

“sure thing.”

“Bye!”

“...later, sweetheart,” and with that, he hung up, and you couldn’t help but smile.

He said goodbye! That was progress! He was warming up to you quicker than you thought. It took much longer than this with any of your other friends.

You spent the rest of the day studying some more, reading some books, and making yourself a small dinner of a packet of Ramen Noodles. If you planned on paying for your dorms, you’d have to sacrifice the pleasure of eating out at nice places, but you thought it was worth it.

After you were done eating and you had cleared your dish, you dusted yourself off, looking on the mirror.

You looked… better than usual?

You sighed. Well, at least you didn't look _terrible_.

Looking away from yourself and down at your pocket, you thought about calling him and thought better of it. You didn't want to ruin everything by bugging him; you had a feeling he might cancel if you’re too persistent.

So, instead you decided to head down there early. That was better than accidently showing up late, as you so often did.

You stood by the door, thinking and making sure you didn't need anything else. When you checked and had your wallet and phone, you decided that you thought you were fine and left, softly closing the door behind you.

You hummed softly to yourself as you walked down the halls, only stopping when you noticed someone walking your way. You shut up and put your head down, hoping that they wouldn't say anything to you. Whenever strangers said hello, you replied half-heartedly and your voice usually cracked.

But apparently, this wasn't a stranger. You looked up when they called your name and waved.

“How are you today?” They asked.

They were a he.

He was tall, wearing a tight, pressed blue suit that gave off the feel that he had some sort of authority. His skin was a rich brown, much darker than most of the people in this area, sprinkled in freckles and dark spots; No restrictions in showing how old he actually was.

“U-uhm,” you cleared your throat nervously as you stopped in front of him. “Good?”

“Nice to hear,” he smiled, revealing more wrinkles on his already loose face. “Sorry, I don't believe we’ve formally met.”

“Oh,” you chuckled with relief. “That's good. I just thought I forgot who you were.”

“Well, perhaps you have, if you've seen me on posters.” He smirked, sticking out his hand. “Adonis Havoc.”

You blinked.

“Y-You mean like…” You swallowed. “The owner of the school?”

“Indeed.”

“Oh jeez!” You quickly took his hand, shaking it firmly. “Hello, Sir! I’m sorry for not recognizing you! I-I've just been so flustered lately, and busy, y’know, with all that work I've been doing.”

He laughed. “No need to be so formal.”

“Well, uh,” you finally let go of his hand, setting it by your side in a soldier-like position. “What brings you down here? Sir?”

“Please, Havoc is fine.”

“Yes,” you coughed. “So, uh, what brings you down here… Havoc?”

“I actually came to speak with you,” you could feel your whole body clench. “Luckily we just ran into each other. Do you think you could talk for a moment? Maybe somewhere a bit more private?”

“I-I, uh,” you laughed nervously. You hated talking to bigger figures. If you slipped up just _once_ , you could easily be expelled. “I a-actually have somewhere to be, so…”

“Tell me,” he sighed. “Does it involve a certain skeleton?” You felt yourself began to shake.

He was onto you, and you didn't even know what for. For hanging out with that skeleton? You knew he didn't seem like the safest guy… you wondered if you’d get into trouble if you said yes. Or… if _he_ would get in trouble if you said yes.

Either way… you didn't want _anyone_ to get in trouble.

“N-No,” you finally replied. “No, it doesn’t.” In disbelief that you actually just lied to the owner of your school, you began to sweat.

His face was unchanged. “Well, if you say so, okay, but just have this be known,” he continued calmly. “He's bad news. He's been wanted at this school for a long time. He tends to wander around, stealing things and selling them; beating kids up; graffitiing the property; bringing his gang along and terrorizing students.”

You're eyes grew wide. “O-Oh..”

“If you see him, please inform a teacher and have them contact me,” he instructed. “And if you do hang out with him…” He slowly rested a hand on your shoulder. “Be careful. Don't be afraid to speak up.” He raised his eyebrows. “Are you sure you haven't seen him?”

You shakily nodded your head. “Y-Yes.”

“Okay then,” Havoc said, letting go of you. “I’ll leave you to it. Have fun tonight,” he smiled. “It _is_ Halloween.”

“R-Right…” You slowly started to walk past him. “Uh, I’ll get going then.”

He nodded. “Until next time.”

You slowly, then quickly once you passed him, walked off and let out the breath you hadn't realized you'd been holding in. You couldn't believe you met the owner of the school, and lied to his face. Oh god, you were in so much trouble if he found out.

Anxiety prompted you to walk faster, bringing you to the front of the school by the statue much quicker than usual. When you got there, still much earlier than you planned, the skeleton was already leaning against the bottom of the statue’s podium smoking a cigarette.

He held it loosely between his boney fingers, pressing it desperately against his sharp teeth as he inhaled. As you approached, you watched in awe as the smoke crawled around inside of him, leaking out from the bottom of his shirt, his sleeves, and even his skull.

He was in a different outfit then the other one you saw him in the two other times. He now had on a black leather jacket with the collar popped, a white sweater opposed to his red one, and darker jeans. The only thing the same was his shoes.

His clothes looked anything but knew, but they were still nice items. And as your mind wandered back to what Havoc said, you wondered if he bought them with his own money.

He looked over at you in surprise as you approached, letting out a long drag of smoke. “uh, you're early.” He briefly looked up at your headband. “wow.” He rolled his eyes. “nice costume.”

“So are you. And thanks,” you flashed him a small smile, but then averted your attention back to his stick. “Uhm, how does that work?” You flinched. “S-Sorry, was that rude?”

He shrugged. “been asked worse.” There was a moment of silence before he continued. “it ain't a normal cigarette. they have ‘em infused with magic for monsters like me; y’know, in lacking of lungs.”

“Oh,” you said, walking closer, “didn't know they could do that.”

He lifted the stick to his mouth again, sucking in a long breath and closing his eyes as you leaned against the statue next to him. You found yourself staring intently, watching the smoke dance down his throat and swirl out between his teeth in spirals.

He let out the breath, opening his eyes again only to see yours locked onto him. His face twisted and he glanced back and forth like there might be something else grabbing your attention.

“what?”

You jumped. “What?”

“there somethin’ on me? why ya givin’ me that look?”

“Sorry,” you said, averting your attention to the ground. “It's just… cool. I mean, you're a skeleton.”

“no shit.”

“I-I just mean,” you feel your face start to burn. “It's really awesome. I’ve never really met a monster besides you.” 

He scoffed. “wish i could say the same ‘bout humans.”

“Yeah…” You agreed, looking further down. “If only.”

He looked you over for a second before looking out ahead of him at the trees surrounding the school’s small, brick barrier. Absent mindedly, he hit his stick with a thumb, letting the embers fall by your feet.

“smoke don't bother ya?” He asked to your surprise, breaking the silence.

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “i dunno, you're pretty high maintenance, with all the passing out an’ all. seem like ya wouldn't like it.”

“Oh,” you looked away. “Guess so…” You paused to briefly sigh. “Never really bothered me. My parents used to smoke, so… kinda brings back memories, if anything. Not that I’d smoke anything myself,” you added as an afterthought.

“you wouldn't like it anyway,” he said. “magic ones are pretty fuckin’ strong.”

For a moment, you let your mind slip back to your conversation with Havoc and wonder how much you should be telling this skeleton.

But… he didn't seem like that bad of a guy…

“It’s, uh, getting a little darker,” you said. “Want to head out somewhere?”

“nah,” the skeleton lifted the cigarette to his teeth again. “i dun really feel like going anywhere anymore.”

“Oh,” you said, looking at him. “Not feeling it?”

“like i said,” smoke trickled out of him as he spoke, “not a big holiday type o’ guy. going out somewhere seems like the last thing I wanna do right now.”

“Yeah,” you shrugged. “You know, it's kind of like… the older you get, the more magic is drained out of the holidays. Parties seem less fun, people seem less appealing. Guess at a certain point, those holidays just seem like regular days; Nothing’s…. Special. Anymore.”

The skeleton paused, looking at his cigarette thoughtfully before looking back up at you. “damn, sweetheart. _someone's_ got issues.”

“Sorry,” you felt your face start to heat up again. “Didn't mean to dampen the mood.”

“hey, I mean, what else’r holidays for, amiright?” He chuckled, looking down at his hands and dropping the cigarette to the floor. “people will always look for an excuse to go out and get hammered, hopin’ to forget themselves for a while, but just end up wallowing in self pity.” He brought his foot up, bring it down on the stick and putting it out. “it's never a long term solution.”

“Jeez,” you breathed. “This got super deep.”

“sorry, i know, it's fucking halloween,” he mocked. “go out, party, have the time of your shitty-ass life, right?”

“Well,” you brushed loose hairs behind your ear. “You don't have to do anything special to have a fun time. Sometimes, just relaxing can be nice.”

The skeleton laughed. “right, right, relax.”

“I-I’m serious!” You sat up from the statue. “I know--I know life can be crappy. I know sometimes it can really kick you in your metaphorical balls--”

“metaphorical--?”

“But sometimes you just have to make the most of things. You don't have to do drugs or go to a rave to have fun. I know, holidays suck, _people_ suck. But… maybe if we just walk around and look at decorations and laugh at stupid kids… things will be okay. For a while. Or at least seem like it.”

He closed his eyes, sighing. “i dunno, sweetheart. seems like a lot of work.”

“Well, if we're gonna be bummed anyways…” You looked at him in the eyes. “There's no harm in trying, right?”

The skeleton flicked his thumb on his sharp, gold tooth in thought. “fine.” You smiled. “but if i’m still bored in ten minutes, i’m goin’ back.”

“Fair enough,” you smirked, glancing over your shoulder. “We can probably just walk around campus. They have some festive lights up on some of the dorms.”

The skeleton made a hesitant noise. “my face ain’t exactly welcomed around here, sweetheart.” You thought back to what the principal had spoke to you about.

“Oh yeah. Well, how about we go around the neighborhoods close to here? They might have something…” You ran a hand over your head. “I know that there’s one of those themed houses not too far from here.”

“either way, i wanna get the hell outta here,” he pushed himself off of the statue, stretching his arms. “hate this fuckin’ place.”

The two of you started to walk away in silence, crossing the big empty street that let out of school grounds. You pulled him back as to look both ways before doing so, but he shrugged you off and swore under his breath.

You looked back and forth before running to catch up with him and walk beside him at his pace (which was much slower and laid back than you would’ve liked). After a moment of quiet, the sound of metal caught your attention. You looked over at him to see chain’s dangling from his pocket and hitting his side. They were a metallic black, thicker and heavier looking than most you’ve seen.

Without thinking, you started to slowly lean forward to get a better look at them. From that, your eyes led you down to his shoes that had the same metal on the bottoms of them that made a small _clink_ with every step. His laces were untied, but you didn’t dare mention it to his face.

You tried to imagine how his bones worked as opposed to a human’s. They were obviously much thicker and more supported by each other, there being no muscle. Maybe it was magic, not that you knew anything about how it worked. When monsters first came to the surface, you thought it was just another dumb rumour, like the tale of Mt. Ebott. But if that turned out not to be fake…

Back when you first met him at Hot Topic, you had seen he had a tongue. Were they able to manifest magic into a physical object? Maybe they had artificial magic muscles or something.

“the fuck you doin’?” The skeleton growled, slowing down even more. You hadn’t realized you were leaning very close to him and staring.

“Oh gosh!” You sat up straight, your face burning. “S-Sorry! Just, uh… just lost in thought, I guess.”

“well, i wouldn’t mind if ya’d stop that,” he smirked. “i get it, there’s a lot ta take in with _this_ body, but control yourself.” You could feel your air get caught in your throat and your face catch on fire.

“No! NO. I wasn’t--i-it wasn’t anything like that!”

“it’s fine, it's fine, sweetheart,” he said with mock apology. “i constantly have bitches tripping over themselves for me; you wouldn't be the first.”

You could feel your body begin to shake with embarrassment. “I WASN’T TRIPPING OVER MYSELF, I WAS THINKING! I-I-I WAS-- I-IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!”

You looked away as he started to cackle, bending over and laughing. Just as you were about to yell at him again, you were stopped dead as his chortling was cut short by a loud snort.

He shut right up, clamping a hand right over his mouth.

Now it was your turn to laugh. You started to giggle, and you were intrigued when his face turned slightly red.

Must be the magic.

His face quickly got more red and he glared at you. “shut the fuck up! whaddya laughin’ at, huh?” He spat. “wasn’t even fuckin’ funny!” 

“Sorry, but that was adorable,” you said softly.

He looked over at you, a flustered look on his flushed face, then quickly looked away, angrily shoving his hands in his jean pockets. “fuck you.”

You let out a last, small chuckle before attempting to contain your laughter. 

You made a skeleton _blush_.

“Hey,” you started after a few moments of pondering. You bit your lip. “Well I… I just. Okay, so I was kinda wondering… I wanted to ask…. Uh--”

“just spit it out, will ya?” The skeleton mumbled, rolling his eyes.

“Well, I don't know if it's rude.”

“then it prolly is.”

“Yeah…” You sighed. “Just--nevermind.”

“if yer worried about offendin’ me sweetheart, i wouldn't be,” he snorted. “i can assure you, i’ve been asked worse.”

You thought about it more, looking down at your moving feet. “Well, it's just… I wanted…”

“we gonna go through this shit again?”

You squinted at him. “Fine. I was wondering about magic.”

He raised a brow, flashing you a side glance. “what about it?”

“Just… How it works?” You looked forward. “See? Dumb question.”

He shrugged. “that's all everyone asked when we came up. that an’ if we wanted to hurt them,” he chuckled. “humans are all ‘magic this’ and ‘magic that’ when it really ain't all that interestin’. s’like me askin’ you to explain how your digestive system works; long and boring and you don't actually know shit about it unless you study the digestive system.”

“...Never thought about it like that.”

“welp, that's how it is,” he said sternly. “not that those idiots believed us. they all thought we were hiding it from them so they couldn't use it or some shit. which would probably be a good idea anyways seeing as the last time I checked, humans used that shit to trap us underground for hundreds of fuckin’ years.” He huffed angrily. “we'd be lucky if every fuckin’ magician out there is fuckin’ extinct.” He waved his hand around as he talked, obviously fired up about the subject.

“Sorry,” you replied unsurely.

“about what?” He looked over at you with a questioning expression.

“About… my people exiling you to that.”

“don’t take the blame for what other people did, that's dumb as hell.” He demanded. “if I took the blame for all the shit monsters did, I would be the worst guy on the fuckin’ planet.”

You quietly brushed hair behind your ear, awkwardly trying to think of a response.

Minutes passed before he spoke up again. “i, uh, didn't really answer your question, huh?”

“What?” You said, looking over at him.

“about magic.” He scratched his head. 

“Oh, uh, not really. It's fine though, it doesn’t matter. I was just curious.”

He paused. “see, magic kinda works the same way as blood, but it's hella more badass. it flows through not only you, but everyone, all at once.”

You perked up. “Oh?”

He went on to explain the flow of magic and how different magics had different properties. His magic, which was red, was able to manifest into a solid object (called it!) but was only there as long as you had the energy to keep it there. He could make bones as weapons or shield himself. Most of the things he talked about were fighting related.

You had a strange feeling that there was a lot of violence in the Underground.

You listened intently as he explained the basics of what he knew in the least scientific way possible, and we're interested the entire time. You were so involved, in fact, you didn't notice really where you were headed.

You found yourself on a quieter street in a neighborhood, no cars or people around anywhere. The halloween decorations and kids roaming around stopped a few blocks back. The houses were super shady and empty looking, but you tried not to take much notice. You just started to lead the way out of the neighborhood, turning around to get back to the dorms.

You were too enthralled to interrupt.

“...and that's how most fighting works,” he continued. “i don't use any of it, cus it's too much damn work. i use traditional techniques; plain an’ simple. hate doin’ all that fancy shit.”

“You seem like the type,” you joked. “Does it also--”

“shh.” He hissed quickly, throwing his arm out in front of you to make you stop in place.

“What--”

“shut the fuck up!” He harshly whispered. You watched as he stuck his head out, trying to listen for something..

“W-what's wrong?” You shakily whispered back, looking around you. “You're freaking me out!”

“JUST SHUT UP.” He clasped a hand over your mouth and started to listen again. “we needta get outta here. gotta bad feelin’ about this place.” You nodded under his touch, your breathing ragged and shallow beneath his hand.

He slowly let go of you and turned around. “c’mon, we gotta hurry.”

You walked fast behind him, constantly looking behind you and to the sides. “D-Did you see someone? Was someone there? Aren't cults supposed to come out on Halloween or something? Was--”  
You were stopped in place as he tightly grabbed you by the arm. 

“the best thing you can do right now is _shut up_.” He said quietly. “i know a lot of bad people, sweetheart. a lot of people lookin’ for me. I don't know, but one of ‘em could be roamin’ around here.” After seeing the terrified look on your face, he let go, burying his head in his hands. “this was a terrible fuckin’ idea.” 

“W-Well, what kind of--l-lets just get out of here.” 

“Not so fast, hunny-buns.”

You both swerved around at the sound of a voice slithering out of a nearby yard.

There stood a tall, lanky man carrying a baseball bat that he was smacking repeatedly into his palm as he stared at you. His face was covered by a bunny mask. It had small, floppy, plastic ears protruding from the top, and a creepy, blushing smile where his mouth would be.

You froze, but the skeleton immediately got into a fighting position. “what the fuck…?”

“Oooooh, now what do we have here?” Another man walked out from behind a house, followed by 4 other people also with bats in hand. He was wearing a mask as well (as were the rest), only his had a horrific clown on it; an uneasy smile stretching across its face. They each had all black on, from head to toe. “A skeleton?” He laughed. “Haven't seen one of you, yet.”

“what the fuck do you want?” The skeleton growled next to you, making you flinch.

You could feel your body shake and begin to shut down. What should you do?

“I want you and the rest of your _things_ to get the fuck out of my country,” Clownface chirped. “That enough for ya?”

“yea,” sweat glistened on the skeletons head, but he maintained a menacing smile. “now that we've cleared up that that ain't happenin’, i’m givin’ you the chance ta turn back before one of ya’s get hurt.”

Clownface smiled crookedly under his veil. “I call your bluff.”

The skeleton didn't look at you, but reached out and touched your arm. “run,” he breathed out of the side of his mouth.

You simply stood there dumbly, paralyzed in fear.

“run!” he whispered again, but you couldn't find it in you to move as the figures started to walk towards you. “GOD, GET THE THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” He looked over at you to scream in your face, and that was enough for Clownface to run at him and ram the bat straight into his teeth.

The skeleton flew back, smacking the street but quickly recovering and standing up. You screamed as he did so, not noticing as a man with a simple smiley face mask on ran toward you. He hit you smack dab in the gut, causing you to fall back.

“kid!” The skeleton yelled out for you, but had to turn back to fight off Clownface and the other guys that began parading towards him.

Smiley stood over you, placing a foot on your already damaged stomach. He leaned down so you were basically nose to nose.

“I bet your fucking that skeleton, huh?” He spat through a smile. He sat back up straight, cackling as he lifted the bat in the air, ready to strike your skull. “Monster fucker!” He laughed insanely, bring the bat down, but was stopped by a hand reaching out and catching it before it could crush your nose.

You put together that it was the skeleton once he pulled the bat away and grabbed the handle, knocking it into Smiley’s face. Blood spattered and you heard a bright _crack_ as it crushed his nose inward, leaving him immobile on street. 

The skeleton, sweaty and covered in dirt and blood, hurriedly helped you up. You tried to cling to him, but he pulled away, bashing another guy in a Guy Fawkes mask. Even after he fell to the floor, he beat his stomach over and over. He walked over to him, kicking his head.

“D-Don't k-k-k-kill h-him!” Is all you managed to get out. The skeleton looked over at you long enough for Guy Fawkes to tug on his foot and pull him down on the floor next to him.

They tumbled with each other for a bit, rolling over in the street and exchanging punches, until the skeleton finally broke free, standing up and running over to you.

Everyone that was able to started to run at you two, and just as you were about to start screaming for help, the skeleton threw his hands out in front of him. They were engulfed in a red glow as well as his left eye, which appeared to be almost on fire.

Each of the men in the masks were covered by the same red and they all fell to their knees. They struggled to get up, but just fell back down.

The skeleton was breathing heavily, soaked in sweat. Each moment seemed like pain to him.

“get out of here!” He strained. “i can't hold ‘em for long!”

“I…” You sobbed, tears starting to flow down your face. “I-I can't just l-leave you!”

“do you wanna f-fuckin’ die instead? is-is that it?!” He yelled, followed by a pained groan. “I can't hold this many people at once! just get the fuck out of here!”

“I w-won't leave you!”

“fuuuUUUCK!!” He yelled. He threw his hands down, getting rid of the glow and letting everyone smack the floor. He then held his hand toward you, violent pushing back on your chest.

You could feel yourself get unreasonably heavy as you were thrown backward down the street a couple hundred feet. You flew and flew until you smacked into a tree at some couple miles an hour. You heard a _crack_ when your head collided with the tree trunk and could feel your body start to go numb.

You watched helplessly as the skeleton was tacked by the group of masked men and beat on by countless bats until your vision began to blur.

And until you eventually couldn't see at all as your eyes involuntarily closed and your body went slack.

☠️ ☠️ ☠️

You woke up to your head pounding and your back aching. Groaning, you rolled around,struggling to sit up. You sucked in a breath as you finally got up straight. Why did you hurt so--

Oh.

Shit.

Suddenly remembering what happened, you began to shake again. You looked around, both confused and relieved to be back on the couch in your dorm.

You needed to find the skeleton. He looked like he got seriously injured. And it was… admittedly up your fault. Why didn't you just run?

You looked down to see a pack of ice on your knee and your ankle; underneath, two ghastly bruises.

God, why didn't you take Havoc warning? If you had just stayed home… the skeleton would've been okay.

And you wouldn't be in so much pain.

Groaning, you laid the ice packs down and stood up. You tried to stretch but when your... everything screamed out in pain, you decided to stop. 

Trying your best to ignore the pain, you quickly started for the door, only to find a small sticky note on it.

You picked it up and held it close, your eyes struggling to focus. But when they did, you could feel tears begin to form.

In awful handwriting, it read:

 

_i took care of it_  
ur safe  
dun look for me or try to call 

 

You shoved the note in your pocket, running out the door. You ran outside, looking around. Your head pounded, cutting deep into your skull, but you needed to find him. You need to see he was okay.

Opening the door and looking out, you could see it was still dark.

Still Halloween.

He might still be close.

You started to run down the empty college streets, limping on your injured ankle. You were heaving in breaths, slowing down due to the ringing in your ears and throbbing pain engulfing your body. 

You ran and ran, searching around, until you finally reached the end of campus by the statue you were at earlier.

He had said he hated this place. He might have left the grounds.

But as you even stuck one foot out of the ground, someone jumped out, pinning you against the stone wall surrounding the school.

It was Clownface.

His hand was around your neck and his fingers were digging into your skin.

“You think you could get away, huh?” He lifted you up by your neck, letting your legs dangle in the air. You yelped, gasping for air. “That freak of yours is gonna pay.” He laughed. “Let's see how it feels when its girlfriend gets her fucking neck snapped in--” He was stopped as something smacked him in the side of the head, sending him limp to the floor.

You gasped in a breath, gripping your neck.

Tears started falling down you face and you were sobbing as you were pulled into a surprising hug.

You and the hugger both fell to your knees and they started to stroke your hair as you sobbed into their shoulder. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.” You recognized that the voice belonged to the skeleton. “i shouldn't have left,” he spoke softly into your ear, hugging you tighter. “i thought they were gone, i thought i got ‘em… i thought if i left, you wouldn't be in danger.”

You both sat in silence, the only noise the occasional passing of a car and your crying.

Finally, he pulled back and looked at you. His face was covered in cuts and blood, his left eye swollen and bruised. “sans.”

You gave him a confused look, sniveling and heaving with sobs. “W-What?”

“my name is sans.” He said tiredly. “call me sans.”

You wiped your nose with your sleeve, pulling him back in for a hug. He stiffened up, but then relaxed into you again. You softly said your name into his shoulder.

He chuckled.

“...that's a nice name.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> c r i m e s ; ^ )
> 
> TUMBLLLLLL  
> https://rainbow-flavoured.tumblr.com


	7. A little better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “‘kay, you got it from here, hon?” He asked, breaking the silence.  
> You looked him over. “Are you serious?”  
> He looked skeptical, gripping his side and looking around in thought. “ya got coffee?”  
> “I was… gonna buy coffee that day. But you took my money, so…”  
> He let out something between a chuckle and a scoff. “irony at its finest.” After a moment, he sighed. “i’ll come in. but _jus’ for a bit_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After a long time, here it finally is lol  
> The next chapter should be out fairly soon bc I'm excited :^)
> 
> Fanart:  
> [Sans and Reader](https://rainbow-flavoured.tumblr.com/post/162335537450/letsallbecalmchaps-rainbow-flavoured-i-tried) (thank you so much for this omg I still love it)

As worried as you were about your own health, you couldn't help but worry more about leaving Clownface’s body lying in the bushes. Sans had told you that it would be fine; he would either be found by his buddies or wake up on his own and go home with a headache. As much as he had insisted on “killing that fuckin’ bastard,” you concluded that there was no need to escalate the situation to murder. After a long winded argument and much yelling, Sans finally decided to let him live when he couldn’t even understand you arguing anymore over your own sobbing.

He reassured you that the gang had hurt you two worse--that the fucker would live--but you were still very skeptical.

After a while, you got tired of asking questions and being paranoid, so you walked most of the way back to your dorm in silence; although you could hear Sans grunt every so often and stop in place for a mere second. You assumed that he was just tired. You were too. 

He was looking back and forth, on the watch for teachers, but you knew that it was too late for anyone to be wandering around looking for trouble. No staff here was getting paid enough to be _that_ vigilant.

Without anymore trouble, you made your way back outside the dorm buildings.

“‘kay, you got it from here, hon?” He asked, breaking the silence.

You looked him over. “Are you serious?”

“uh, yeah,” he said like it was obvious.”

“Come inside! We were just--you shouldn’t be walking around anymore. You need rest--we both do.”

“we went over this. i can't be seen here.”

“It's fine! I-It's probably past midnight, no one's on the lookout at this hour,” you stated. “And even so… it's not like anyone's ever coming into my room anyway.”

He looked skeptical, gripping his side and looking around in thought. “ya got coffee?”

You chuckled. “It's funny. I actually would if you hadn't stole my wallet.”

He raised a brow.

“I was… gonna buy coffee that day. But you took my money, so…”

He let out something between a chuckle and a scoff. “irony at its finest.” After a moment, he sighed. “i’ll come in. but _jus’ for a bit_. maybe raid your fridge.”

You smiled weakly. “Fine by me.”

You limped ahead of him, trying to ignore the pain racking your body with every step as you lead him to your room. The building was eerily empty and quiet, fitting in with tonight's whole mood.

As quickly as you could without passing out (again), you speedwalked to your door and opened it (of course you forgot to lock it, but that was lucky considering that you left your key on the counter), running inside to plop down on the couch in relief.

You let out a satisfied groan, sinking into the cushion. “I’ve never been so grateful to have a home,” you said airily. 

“...yea.”

After a moment of clearing your head, you looked up at Sans, who was standing in front of you, looking very uncomfortable.

“Are you okay?”

“why wouldn’t i be?”

You slowly looked back down. “...We should call the cops.”

“no fuckin’ way.”

“Why not?” You glared up at him. “We-We shouldn’t just leave that guy out there. If he hurry, he’ll still be there when the cops come and we’ll just tell them what happened--”

“tell them what happened?” Sans cackled, but was cut off by a wince.

“What? What’s so funny?”

 

He sighed, smiling. “in case you haven’t noticed, sweetheart, monsters don’t exactly got the best reputation.”

“ _They_ attacked _us_!”

“what, you don’t think shit like that happens _all the time_?” He hissed darkly. “welcome to bein’ a monster, hon--everybody is against you every fuckin’ day. you think the cops give any more of a shit about us then those gang assholes? no!” He winced again, gripping his side as he talked. “we’re monsters. and bein’ a “monster sympathizer” is just as bad.”

“I’m . . . I’m sure someone is willing to listen.”

He let out an airy chuckle. “if you stick around guys like me, you'll realize that ain't true quicker than you think.” Sucking in a breath, he shifted his weight to his other foot. “he’ll be fine. someone fightin’ like that knows the risks and probably knows what to do if something like this happens. now can we jus’ fuc--” He sucked in a sharp breath. “f-fucken sit in silence?”

You paused. “Uhm… Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he replied quickly. “jus’ pissed.”

“Are you sure?”

“ _yes._ ”

“How about you sit down?”

“look! i don’t need _anythin’_ o--” Sans grimaced as he stumbled to the side, gripping onto the couch for support. He shoved his hand tightly against his side and let out a shout.

You immediately shot up and limped over to him, but when you tried to reach out to him, he retracted and slapped your hand away.

“You’re hurt!”

“no--” He stopped to take a deep breath. “i’m not. i’m fine. i’ll go home, take an advil and never come back here.” He shakily stood up straight and started towards the door. “what a fuckin’ mistake _this_ was…” At first, you just watched him as he slowly trudged away. But as soon as he toppled over and fell to the floor, you ran over to him and began to pick him up.

He weakly writhed and tried to wriggle free, cursing and calling you names, but you carried him bridal style to the couch and set him down.

“I-I’m sorry! But I need--”

“you don’t need to nothin’!” He interrupted. “i’m fine! i’ve been fucked over worse!”

“P-Please! I need to make sure you’re okay!” You hesitantly held his arms against the couch as he kicked his feet. You looked over him in panic, not sure what to do.

“LET GO OF ME YOU FUCKIN’ BITCH I’LL KILL YOU I’M FUCKIN’ FINE AND DON’T EVEN--” You raised your hand and you could see him brace for a slap; by the looks of it, he was more than ready to take it. Instead, you watched his face relax when you gently placed a hand around his cheek. His body stiffened and he stopped moving. “uh. . .”

“Please. . .” You asked softly. “I . . . I don’t want you to hurt. I can help.”

He looked up at you and you could see his face turn a slight red. Quickly looking away, he retracted from your touch. “jus’ get it the fuck over with, will ya?”

You nodded. “Okay. Real quick.” You started to reach for his jacket, but he coiled away. “I just need to look under your jacket. It hurts on your side, right?”

He rolled his eyes, but complied and relaxed again. You slowly began to unzip his jacket zipper and you could swear he turned even more red as you did. After that you gently peeled back one of the leather sides, revealing his crimson-soaked sweater that was clearly visible against the white fabric.

“Oh god . . .” You whispered. Slowly, you slid your hand against his ribcage and lifted up his shirt, making him squirm uncomfortably and your eyes widen at what you saw.

Unlike a human, he had thick ribs that traveled all the way down from his neck to his waist, mimicking a human stomach. The bones along his side had cracks in them that were gushing blood and were caved in at some parts. There were massive bruises in patches all around his chest that made your own knees weak, staining what wasn’t red a dark, feverish purple. You could see as his chest heaved up and down with every shallow breath his took.

Pushing aside your curiosity of how the hell a skeleton bleeds and breathes, you looked at him in worry. “W-We need to get you to a hospital!”

“no! I’m--” he looked down, cutting himself short with a momentary look of terror. Looking back up at you, he spoke quietly. “you jus’ need to patch me up here.”

“I-I’m not a doctor!”

“i know people that’ve gotten fucken _backalley surgeries_ and lived!” He shouted, then subsequently sucked in a breath of sharp air. “i-i’m sure ya can figure _something_ out!”

You shakily stood up. “P-Please. I’ll call the police. They can pick up t-the clown guy and then they can bring you an ambulance and . . .” You trailed off, cutting yourself off at the look in his eyes; a look somewhere between anger and fear.

You had the sinking feeling that it wouldn’t end up well for him if the police found him.

Nodding frantically, you headed towards your kitchen to get supplies. You gathered the medical kit that the school gave you on your first day, a wet rag, a big bowl of water, tissues . . . anything you thought might help. Once you heard him start to groan, you quickly got everything and brought it out to him.

After a few minutes, you finally managed to coax Sans into taking off his jacket (but not the shirt). Shaking, you dipped the rag into the water and started to wipe clean the cuts and blood. You felt terrible every time Sans would flinch or his breathing would hitch, but you needed to clean him up. Reaching into the kit, you found some antibacterial wipes that you used to clean out the breaks in his bone once you could see them clearly through the blood.

Sans quietly cursed each time you made contact, closing his eyes and trying to ignore the pain. You made sure to constantly ask if he was okay, which obviously started to annoy him at some point, but you’d rather be safe than sorry.

Eventually, you managed to disinfect and clean his wounds to the point that you could properly bandage them. You dove into the kit again and pulled out two rolls of gauze, carefully undoing them as you planned on where to start.

Not really having a plan, you gently began to weave your fingers through his ribcage, pull the bandage, and wrap it tightly around the bone. He shifted and squirmed as you did, looking away and very annoyed. The more you touched him, the more you realized that he was . . . getting warmer?

Once you finished one of the ribs and cut the bandage to the correct length, you gently set your hand on his chest to feel if he was heating up. He immediately looked up at you with a flustered expression. 

“what the hell?” He hissed, pushing your hand away. “if i wanted to get felt up, i wouldn’t have it be by you.”

You retracted your hand. “I-I wasn’t feeling you up!”

“felt like it, you fuckin’ weirdo.”

“I-I WAS JUST--” You huffed out an angry breath. “You felt hot and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t imagining things.”

“hate ta break it to ya, sweetheart, but i’ve always been this hot.” He winking. “thanks for noticing.”

You slapped your palm against your face. “You are _impossible _. I’m only trying to help!”__

__“well, if ya helped faster, that’d be appreciated.”_ _

__You grit your teeth, taking in a deep breath to calm yourself before wrapping more bandages around a different set of bones. You didn’t think you’d ever understand how he managed to stay so calm through something like this. Yeah, maybe he was a little reluctant, but you know that you would never be anywhere near as cool and collected enough to make _jokes_ as he was right now._ _

__When you finally finished, you went to exclaim in glee, but shut yourself up when you saw that Sans’ eyes were closed and he was softly snoring. Glancing at the clock and seeing that it was now past two in the morning, you decided it was about time that you head to bed as well._ _

__You softly smiled as you looked him over; he looked oddly calm while sleeping. Putting aside what happened tonight, you had the feeling that he really deserved a good nap. His apartment room definitely did not look like a place where that could occur very often._ _

__Ever so slowly, you rolled his shirt back down over his stomach, resting your hand on top of it. His breathing stopped momentarily at the contact, but he quickly relaxed and continued as normal. You felt as his chest heaved up and down, up and down, a small pool of warmth accumulating under your palm. One could only assume that he must have some sort of heat magic._ _

__It was… oddly relaxing._ _

__With a moment’s hesitation, you leaned down and rested your head where your hand had been, listening carefully. There was a low growl coming from his throat after a few seconds, resembling almost a purr. You closed your eyes, feeling a strange soft hum that traveled throughout him._ _

__That must also be the magic._ _

__Assuming that he was a heavy sleeper at this point, you couldn’t help but wrap your arms around him and drape the top half of your body over him._ _

__He seemed like such a sad man; someone who has too much animosity in his life. You could tell as much by spending a mere few nights with him. You didn’t know why you would ever care about an asshole like him, but you couldn’t help but feel bad. Someone who acts the way he does has to have had some real shit happen to him._ _

__Maybe one day if you two were close enough, you would ask._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's really hard for me to not just skip forward to heavy fluff ok 
> 
> Check me out on tumblr! I'm @rainbow-flavoured :0


	8. ...We meet again...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Ring . . . ring . . . ring . . .  
>  Click.  
> Your call has been automatically directed to--_  
> You sighed, hanging up before the automated voice could continue.  
> You know that it’s been over two weeks since Sans had left, but you couldn’t help but call a few times every few days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today marks the anniversary of me starting this fic!!!!! :0 Can't believe it's been so long already! I hope that I can write a lot more this year ;w; Thank you to everyone who's stuck around! It means a lot!!!  
> And hopefully I'll be able to draw out a book cover for this soon :)  
> ALSO, HAPPY 20,000+ WORDS WOOOO

As you slowly blinked open your eyes, you couldn’t help but groan at the painful aching in your back. You writhed around for a moment before sitting up, finding yourself laying on the floor. It was no wonder you were so sore, you must have slept there all night.

You smacked your lips, a bad taste lingering in your mouth from having not brushed your teeth last night. As you attempted to stand up, your body was racked in pain; your legs were still badly bruised and your back hurt like a mother from where Sans had slammed you against that tree.

_...Sans._

You looked from side to side, suddenly realizing that he wasn’t there. Limping from room to room, you quickly found out that he wasn’t in your dorm. Swearing to yourself, you felt you back pocket for you phone, but it wasn’t there.

It could’ve been anywhere: out in the streets, in one of those gang members’ hands, back in that sketchy neighborhood…

Or maybe it fell out when you were asleep. 

You walked over to where you had been sleeping on the floor, sighing in relief when you found it laying there. It was a miracle it actually managed to stay in your pocket through everything.

You picked it up and sat down on the couch, quickly dialling Sans’ number.

It went straight to voicemail.

You swore quietly under your breath, calling a few more times before giving up and leaving a message.

“U-Uhm, hi! Sans. Uh, I was just, uh… I wanted to know where you are. And if you’re safe. Please, please call me back. Just let me know that you’re okay. You shouldn’t be walking around with…. J-Just call me. Please.” You hung up, not bothering to record again and correct your stuttering.

After a few minutes with no response, you tried to forget about everything for awhile and take a nice shower. It took much longer than usual with you trying to be sensitive with your different obscurely placed injuries, but you got through it. After you finished and changed into clean PJ’s, you felt like a new person. Only downside, when you went to put on your bra, you realized that the strap in the back was on the verge of snapping. The fabric was torn and didn’t look like it would last much longer. It must’ve caught on...something, last night.

Although everything had only happened in one night, you felt like you’d been missing for years; like you were held captive and stranded from home. That one night was enough to make you grateful to have a nice home to come back to.

Your dorm? Worth every cent.

Your mood deflated at the thought of Sans out there. He didn’t have a nice place like this. He had a shitty apartment and you were pretty sure no one to go home to. That made your stomach twist in a way it never had before. He didn’t seem like the best person, but after going through something like that… you didn’t think anyone deserved to go back to a shithole apartment room in an abandoned building, with no one living within miles, to tend to their own injuries.

You wish he had stayed. 

You would’ve made him breakfast. And made sure to change his bandages. And let him take a nice hot shower. 

Maybe you would’ve even offered to let him stay here a few more nights. 

At that thought, you reached for your phone, but stopped.

He would never say yes. He hardly even wanted to stay here overnight. You sighed, glancing at your phone to see you had a few new messages.

They were from Sans.

You quickly clicked on it and unlocked your phone, hoping he said that he would come back.

_i’m fine_  
don’t call or text me  
and sure as hell don’t come to my fucking house 

Straight and to the point as always. 

You sighed, slipping your phone back in your pocket.

At least he was okay.

Suddenly, your mind shot back to your classes. What day was it again? Did you have any classes today? Glancing at the clock, you saw that it was already 2 in the afternoon.

Crap.

Well, unless he said anything else… it seemed that Sans would have to wait for now.

☠️ ☠️ ☠️

_Ring . . . ring . . . ring . . ._

_Click._

_Your call has been automatically directed to--_

You sighed, hanging up before the automated voice could continue.

You know that it’s been over two weeks since Sans had left, but you couldn’t help but call a few times every few days. He no doubt just hung up on you or maybe blocked your number, but there was no harm in trying.

After everything, you finally managed to get everything back on track. Havoc, the principal of the school, had come to talk to you again after you missed a day or two of classes, but you easily lead him away and got him to believe that everything was okay. You had thought a few times about just coming clean and telling him everything, but you were set now on keeping Sans safe. You gauged that maybe lying to Havoc wasn’t so bad if you were only trying to do the right thing.

Plus, there was no need to bring it up. Sans was gone and probably wouldn’t be much of a problem anymore. And he’s probably still hurt. You don’t think you had it in you to rat him out.

So, you finally got things back on track…. Again. You seemed to have to do that a lot lately. Since you met Sans, it’s been a lot harder to stay on the straight and narrow. And you find yourself thinking about him a lot. You wish that you could see him. Just one more time. Make sure that he’s actually okay.

Finishing up your work, you decided to call him one last time, despite knowing he wouldn’t pick up.

 _Ring . . . ring . . . ring--_

“okay, what the fuck’s your problem?” You jumped when Sans’ voice, to your surprise, hissed through the speaker.

“Sans! Oh my--”

“no, no, don’t ‘sans’ me,” he spat. “what the fuck is wrong with you, huh? you’ve been calling me every day for _two fucking weeks. _why?!”__

__“I…” You thought about it. “I just wanted to hear your voice.”_ _

__He paused at that. “what?”_ _

__“I wanted to know that you were alive.” you clarified. “You really scared me, you know!”_ _

__“i don’t care!” He shouted back. “when will you get it drilled into that dull mind of yours that i don’t care what you think or how ya are? and ya sure as hell shouldn’t care about me!”_ _

__“B-But…” You paused. You didn’t know why you cared, but you did. And you weren’t going to let him dismiss you. “I do care. And at least now I know you’re okay.”_ _

__“....you’re fucken crazy,” he mumbled. “make no fucken sense.”_ _

__You sighed. “I’m glad you’re okay.”_ _

__“What- _fucken_ -ever,” he hissed. “will you stop fucking calling me now?”_ _

__“No,” you said a little too quickly._ _

__“...excuse me?”_ _

__“I…” You hated talking back to people, but this was one thing that you weren’t going to let slide. “I-I want to see you again.”_ _

__“what--?”_ _

__“Let me just, buy you a drink or something.” You ran a hand through your hair, looking down as you blushed even though you know he couldn’t see you. “We can go wherever you want and--”_ _

__“look. sweetheart.” Sans’ voice was practically dripping with malice. “i ain’t your friend. i ain’t somebody who’s gonna hang around you and do shit with you--look where the fuck that got us last time!” You flinched, holding the phone slightly back from your ear. “what you need to do is _leave me alone_ and get the _fuck_ outta my _life!_ ” You swallowed at the last part, listening silently to his heavy breathing. You tried your best to choke back small hiccups as tears started to well in your eyes._ _

__“I-I just want to--” You paused to let out a small sob; whether you were crying from him yelling or the fact you might not ever see him again was beyond you. Allowing yourself to softly sob into your hand, you held the phone back in hopes that he wouldn’t hear._ _

__“...shit, uh--” he paused, listening. “you’re seriously--cut that out.”_ _

__“I-I’m so-orry.”_ _

__“s-stop cryin’! if you’re so sad, then hang up the damn phone!”_ _

__“I-I just want t-to se-ee you.”_ _

__“aw jesus, uh… fuck…” Taking a deep breath, Sans subsequently let out a sigh. “I _really_ don’t understand you.” You could hear him softly tap his foot and crack his neck in thought for a good few minutes until you finally stopped crying. “fine,” he suddenly blurted out. “fine, okay? i’ll come fucking see you, happy?”_ _

__Now calmed down, you sat up straight at his words. “Uh, okay.” You couldn’t help but weakly smile, sniffing and wiping your nose. “Okay, thank you.”_ _

__“what _ever_.”_ _

__“Heh, uh… okay, i-is there somewhere you, uh, would want to go? Anywhere, you name it.”_ _

__“the mall.” He said bluntly and you nodded, thinking back to when you first saw him at Hot Topic. In a way, it made sense._ _

__“Okay, sounds good.” You smiled, suddenly feeling a lot better knowing you’d see him soon._ _

__“when.”_ _

__“W-What?”_ _

__“when do ya wanna go? what, next week?”_ _

__“Yeah--uh, actually wait. I have plans next week.”_ _

__“you’re kidding me.”_ _

__“It’s Thanksgiving!”_ _

__“what?”_ _

__“Oh.” You paused, remembering how long monsters had been trapped in the underground. You suddenly felt bad for forgetting that fact. They were under there so long, they must not know about modern holidays… “It’s just, uh, a time where you get together with your family and friends and you eat a lot of food and play games.”_ _

__“sounds terrible.”_ _

__“It’s fun!” Maybe if you already weren’t asking so much, you would invite him down to spend the holiday with you. Although, even if he said yes, it would be a whole other ordeal introducing him to your family. “How about this week? Any day work for you?”_ _

__“i’m busy this week.”_ _

__“Uh… ok. Then how about in two weeks? As--As soon as I get back, I’ll call you, okay?”_ _

__“whatever.”_ _

__“See you then…?” You waited for an answer, only to hear the blaring ring of the dial tone. You didn’t mean to upset him, you just wanted to make sure he was okay. Last time you two left off, he wasn’t in the best condition and you didn’t think you could exactly trust his judgement on what was okay. Well, maybe he wasn’t exactly skipping to your door, but he was going to see you and that’s what mattered. You would show him a good time and, hey, maybe he’d want to go out again sometime._ _

__...Although that was wishful thinking.__

__☠️ ☠️ ☠️_ _

__  
_Two hectic weeks later, you finally opened your dorm door, rushing over to the couch and plopping down with a sigh, not bothering to drag your luggage inside just yet. You loved your family and enjoyed spending time with them, although that was probably the longest week of your life. But as much as you enjoyed it, everything that had happened with Sans was nagging in the back of your mind the entire time. So many times, you felt like sitting down your mother and father and telling them everything, but you didn’t want to worry them. You were doing just fine on your own and you wanted to show them that._  
  


__You had briefly mentioned meeting someone and of course your mom tried to get it out of you every-so-often, asking if it was a man. She wanted so badly for you to be with someone and loved whenever you so much as mentioned a guy’s name._ _

__And _boy_ , is she not bashful about wanting grandkids._ _

__Of course, you humoured her and played around with the idea, but you couldn’t really see yourself getting with anybody any time soon. Especially right now, with the only person you’ve been consistently talking to being Sans._ _

__Speaking of Sans, you should probably call him up. It’s already been so long since you’ve talked, with the whole _don’t-fucking-call-or-text-me_ attitude he had going on and with you being busy with school and your family, it was about time you had a chat about when you were going to meet up. Although, it was kind of early. Plus, you had to return to class later that day. Well, there was no harm in trying._ _

__Digging your phone out of your pocket, you clicked on his profile--which now had his name in place of where ‘skeleton’ used to be, but you had yet to change the picture--and called._ _

___Ring . . . ring . . . ring . . . ring . . . ring . . ._ _ _

__“hello?” You sighed with relief when he finally answered, despite his annoyed tone._ _

__“Uh, hello! How have you been?”_ _

__“whatsit to ya?”_ _

__“Just… wondering, I suppose.” You shrugged, despite him not being there to see you. “Uhm… Are you doing okay?”_ _

__“again: _whatsit to ya_?”_ _

__“I mean, that’s kind of the whole reason we’re meeting up,” you awkwardly chuckled._ _

__“....m’fine,” he mumbled. “don’t worry ‘bout it.”_ _

__“Okay…” You paused, clearing your throat. “Well, I just called to ask if you were free to hang out today. I have class until later tonight, but--”_ _

__“whenever works for me.” You flinched when he interrupted, but were glad that he was at least more cooperative this time around._ _

__“Great! So… let’s say 7.”_ _

__You listened to him take in a deep breath, sighing. “aight. see ya then.”_ _

__“...Right.” You couldn’t help but linger on how oddly resigned he sounded. “We’ll just meet there, is that okay? By the front entrance?”_ _

__“sure thing, sweetheart.”_ _

__“Bye.”_ _

__“bye.”_ _

__You pulled back the phone and frowned. Maybe something happened over the weeks you were gone. You swallowed back the fear that maybe his injuries had gotten worse. Yours weren’t nearly as bad as they were before. Basically, only your back was still bruised and hurt on occasion if you moved around too much, along with the occasional, pounding headache._ _

__Well, you’d see him soon enough.__

__☠️ ☠️ ☠️_ _

__  
_Despite the circumstances, you were excited to be hanging out with someone again. It’d been a good month since you had gone out and you hoped that maybe this time would go smoother. You wouldn’t exactly call yourself ‘dressed up’, but you looked nicer than usual. Trying to match more to Sans’ style, you wore some dark jeans, your usual converse, an Avenged Sevenfold shirt (although you mostly listened to chill indie music, you mixed the occasional intense band in there). You figured it might be some of a conversation starter._  
  


__Taking a deep breath, you checked yourself for the billionth time to see if you had everything you needed. As of recently, you’ve been a lot more paranoid about what you bring and what you leave home._ _

__Phone? Check._ _

__Keys? Check._ _

__Wallet and money? Check._ _

__Emergency pocket injury supplies in case things go south again? Check, check, and double check._ _

__You weren’t going to let life take you by the horns and ram you into the mud again. You were going to out with Sans, have a nice time at the mall, and, no matter what happens, come home safely._ _

__...And hopefully not spend _too_ much money. _ _

__And you did all of your assignments in advance and have them ready to go for the morning, so _there_ was another weight off your shoulders. Now you could relax, check up on Sans, and hopefully have a good time… Although this was a very weird, particular thing to be looking forward to._ _

__Despite yourself, you left early as to arrive at the mall in time. You, unfortunately, did not have a car yet and still needed to walk everywhere._ _

___Maybe you could buy a bike…. Sans has a bike. Well, a motorcycle. It was scary to ride, but… hey, you think you could handle a motorcycle. Were they more or less expensive than cars?__ _

__Riding the strange train of thoughts that strung through your mind as you locked the door to your dorm and headed out into the warm-yet-bitter autumn evening, you were able to distract yourself enough that the walk went fairly quickly. Before you knew it, you were entering the front doors (wow, it was a lot more busy than when you had come here last, during early morning hours) into the warm, crowded lobby of Nordstrom. Standing next to the front entrance, you leaned back and forth and looked over people’s heads in search of Sans. After about 5 minutes of waiting, you were worried that you should’ve been more specific with the location of where you were going to meet. You hoped that he wasn’t lost and wandering around, especially in his condition._ _

__Luckily, you spotted him walking towards the doors about 10 or 15 minutes after you arrived. Considering his personality, you assumed this was as early as it got for him. He slightly tilted his head up to look at you when you ran over and opened the door for him._ _

__“hey,” he rasped, shoving his hands in his pockets._ _

__“Uhm, hi.” Without staring too much, you tried your best to gauge his appearance and see if he was at least physically well; Just a quick glance was enough to see that he definitely looked a little better than last you saw him. His face wasn’t as pale, and that healthy, red glow had returned to his cheeks, but he also had more bruises than you remembered. You only saw him directly after the incident, so you concluded that more marks arose in the days following his injuries once they had time to settle into the bone._ _

__He had a nasty black eye, purple rings lining both of his sockets, and a matching purple and red bruise on the right of his neck that stretched from his lower jaw down to his collarbone. The rest of body was, most likely purposefully, covered by a puffy black jacket with white fur lining the hood, a plain white tank top, dark jeans with heavy, black-silver chains dangling off the side, and sloppy red shoes with untied, yellow laces. Although it was the colder part of autumn, you assumed that he wore winter-esque clothes to cover up the cuts and bruises and bandages he had scattered on his arms, back, and ribcage._ _

__“enjoyin’ the view?” He snapped, making you look up into his tired eyes._ _

__So much for not staring._ _

__“S-Sorry! Just, uh…” You paused, quickly looking him over one more time. “Are you okay?”_ _

__“i said i was before, didn’ i?” He sighed. “it looks worse than it is.”_ _

__“It looks… pretty bad.”_ _

__“it’s not, alright?” He shrugged, looking off to the side. When he did, you got a better glance at the bruise on his neck and could feel a shot of empathetic pain run through your body._ _

__It looked like it hurt. Really badly._ _

__When he looked back back and saw your worried expression, he immediately hunched his shoulders and buried the bruise under his coat fur._ _

__“cut that out, wouldya?” He mumbled angrily._ _

__“Sorry, I just….” You looked down at your feet, softly clenching your fist and popping your knuckles. You knew he wanted to be left alone, but you couldn’t help but feel bad about not focusing your attention solely on his injuries. Despite yourself, you managed to swallow that feeling down and try your best to start treating him like everything was normal. Maybe that would help. “So, uh… where do you want to go first?”_ _

__“i’ll lead the way,” he shrugged, starting to walk past you._ _

__With your reply caught in your throat, you silently turned around and began to follow Sans into what hopefully wouldn’t be any more trouble._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, come hmu on [Tumblr](https://rainbow-flavoured.tumblr.com) :^)


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